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1955 Map of Utukok River A-3

Name: 1955 Topographic Map of Utukok River A-3
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1966
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1966

About this map

The Utukok River snakes through the northern reaches of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, defining a landscape of dramatic oxbows and shifting arctic hydrology. This 1955 survey captures the remote wilderness south of the Beaufort Sea, where the terrain rises from the riverbanks toward the prominent Archimedes Ridge in the western sector of the map.

Mapping efforts by the Army Map Service and the Geological Survey were conducted primarily through photogrammetric methods from 1955 aerial photography. The resulting sheet highlights the unpopulated character of the North Slope, marked by few human imprints beyond a specific Cache and the predetermined land lines of the Bureau of Land Management. The intricate contour lines illustrate the complex drainage patterns and high ridges that characterize this portion of the Umiat Meridian, providing a detailed record of the region's topography before more modern development reached the Alaskan interior.