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1952 Map of West Columbia

Name: 1952 Topographic Map of West Columbia
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1981
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1981

About this map

The West Columbia Oil Field dominates the landscape of this Brazoria County region, where the industrial infrastructure of energy production meets the bottomlands of the San Bernard River. Developed atop a massive salt dome, the field is marked by an extensive network of Oil Tanks and a significant Tank Farm just north of the town center. The settlement of West Columbia sits at a historic crossroads, serving as a hub for the local oil economy and providing access to the preserved grounds of Varner Hogg State Park along the banks of Varner Creek.

Waterways like Mound Creek, Cannon Gully, and Bell Creek weave through the terrain, illustrating the complex drainage patterns of the Texas Gulf Coast. For genealogists and local historians, the location of St Paul Ch and numerous benchmarks provide fixed points for tracing family homesteads and early land tracts. The transition from the 1950s survey to the 1980s photorevisions reveals a landscape defined by the persistent footprint of the petroleum industry and the preservation of coastal woodlands.