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1896 Map of Wartburg

Name: 1896 Topographic Map of Wartburg
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1896
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1896

About this map

Wartburg serves as the focal point for this late 19th-century survey of the Cumberland Plateau, where the rugged topography of The Wilderness meets a burgeoning industrial corridor. The Cincinnati New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway slices through the eastern terrain, connecting settlements like Oneida, Robbins, and Sunbright. This rail line defines the landscape's economic life, bypassing older, more isolated upland communities such as Jamestown and Allardt.

Tracing the deep incisions of the South Fork of Cumberland River and the New River, the map reveals a network of isolated ridges and hollows like Price Hollow and Branham Hollow. The proximity of the utopian experiment at Rugby to the industrial coal-and-timber stops of the railway highlights the era's divergent social and economic ambitions. From the peaks of Cumberland Mountain to the riverside rail stops, the layout illustrates a territory transitioning from an inaccessible frontier to an extractive resource hub.