Loading map...

1951 Map of Virginia

Name: 1951 Topographic Map of Virginia
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1987
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1987

About this map

Industrial activity on the Mesabi Range dominates this survey, where the Wacootah Mine and numerous expansive mine dumps carve into the landscape north of Mountain Iron and Virginia. The map documents a complex infrastructure of heavy rail, including the Duluth Winnipeg and Pacific and Duluth Missabe and Iron Range lines, which serviced the region's extraction economy.

Away from the excavations, the community of Virginia shows significant development, from civic landmarks like City Hall and the Armory to educational institutions such as Missabe Community College and several local schools like Horace Mann Sch. The terrain is physically defined by the Laurentian Divide, which separates the industrial operations from the timbered reaches of the Superior National Forest to the north, where Little Sandy Lake and Lookout Mountain provide a sharp contrast to the open-pit mines.