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1957 Map of West of Johnson Bayou

Name: 1957 Topographic Map of West of Johnson Bayou
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1972
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1972

About this map

Sabine Lake dominates the upper half of this coastal survey, where the brackish waters meet a complex network of marshland ridges in Cameron Parish. The landscape is defined by long, parallel cheniers—elevated sandy ridges that provided the only stable ground for travel and settlement in the coastal wetlands. These features, including Garrison Ridge, Sanders Ridge, and Blue Buck Ridge, show the traditional settlement patterns of the Louisiana coast before modern development altered the terrain.

A network of waterways like Johnsons Bayou and Deep Bayou provided vital transportation routes, evidenced by Johnsons Bayou Landing. The map also captures the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge and the Military Reservation Boundary, reflecting the mix of federal conservation and defense interests during the mid-20th century. Cultural revisions from 1970, marked in purple, show subtle changes in the marsh, including the development of a pipeline and shifts near the settlement of Berwick.