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1951 Map of Twentyone Divide

Name: 1951 Topographic Map of Twentyone Divide
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1976
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1976

About this map

The Cheyenne River winds through this high-plains landscape where the borders of Wyoming and South Dakota meet. Surveyed in the early 1950s, the map reveals a sparsely settled ranching territory defined by the prominent Twentyone Divide and the deep incision of Twentyone Draw. The Black Hills Meridian serves as a critical surveying spine, separating Niobrara County from the South Dakota counties of Custer and Fall River.

Transportation and education are concentrated along the watercourses, with the Chicago Burlington and Quincy railroad line following the path of Beaver Creek in the northeast. The Cheyenne River School stands as a local landmark in the southwest, while the northeastern corner reaches into the timbered edges of the Harney National Forest. The map documents a traditional Western landscape of cattle country before modern infrastructure altered these remote drainage basins.