1982 Map of Wallace Ranch

About this map

Buffalo Gap National Grassland and Oglala National Grassland meet at the boundary between South Dakota and Nebraska, where the arid High Plains terrain is carved by an intricate network of intermittent watercourses. In the early 1980s, this landscape was defined by isolated homesteads like Wallace Ranch and Barkley Ranch, which sat along the southern drainage of Indian Creek. The map documents a complex hydrology of forks and gulches, including the North Fork, Middle Fork, and South Fork that feed into larger systems across the state line. This survey, compiled from mid-1970s aerial photography, captures the sparsely populated ranching country before modern development, detailing local landmarks such as Black Gulch, Alkali Creek, and Mid Fk Duck Creek. It reveals how human settlement in this border region followed the reliable path of the creek beds through the expansive grasslands.