Loading map...

1978 Map of Wooded Island

Name: 1978 Topographic Map of Wooded Island
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1979
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1979

About this map

Hanford Works dominates this stretch of the Columbia River in the late 1970s, revealing the infrastructure of the nuclear age alongside the natural geography of the Pasco Basin. The landscape is a stark mix of security-sensitive development and riverine features, characterized by the U. S. Government Railroad slicing diagonally through a terrain of Sand Dunes and Radioactive Waste Dump sites.

Along the water, several named islands like Wooded Island, Homestead Island, and Johnson Island provide a counterpoint to the industrial installations. The map identifies specific operational hubs such as Geneva Junction, a Test Facility, and numerous test wells, illustrating the intensive scientific and waste-management monitoring prevalent at the site. To the east of the river, the landscape transitions to the agricultural and geological forms of Taylor Flat and Rankin Canyon, separated from the government works by the Hanford Works Boundary.