Published in 1999 from 1994 mapping, the USGS quadrangle titled “Baraboo” captures a richly varied corner of south-central Wisconsin at the intimate 1:24,000 scale. Centered on the city of Baraboo, the map records a landscape where town streets, rural roads, wooded ridges, waterways, and protected parkland meet in close succession. Its topographic language—contour lines, elevation markings, blue water features, and carefully differentiated symbols for settlement and infrastructure—turns the region into a precise visual archive. More than a guide to location, it preserves the geographical and civic character of Baraboo in the late twentieth century, offering a snapshot of land use, transportation, and natural form at a moment just before the accelerating digital age transformed everyday mapping.

The map was produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, one of the most influential scientific mapping institutions in American history. Established in 1879, the USGS helped standardize the nation’s understanding of terrain, water, minerals, landforms, and settlement through rigorous surveying and cartographic publication. Its 7.5-minute quadrangles became essential tools for engineers, planners, hikers, conservationists, and historians alike. In this Baraboo sheet, that institutional clarity is evident in the disciplined hierarchy of information: roads and boundaries remain legible without overwhelming the relief, while contour intervals articulate the character of hills, valleys, and lowlands. The result is a map that balances technical authority with visual elegance, translating the Earth’s surface into a finely ordered composition of lines, colors, and symbols.

Devil’s Lake State Park is one of the map’s defining landmarks, anchoring the southern portion with dramatic terrain unlike the surrounding agricultural and urban landscape. The park is famous for steep quartzite bluffs, forested slopes, trails, and the deep blue lake held between ancient rock walls. Contour lines crowd tightly around these heights, revealing abrupt changes in elevation and giving the viewer an immediate sense of the park’s rugged topographic drama. This is a landscape shaped by deep geological time: the Baraboo Range contains some of the oldest exposed rock in the Midwest, while glacial processes helped form the lake basin and surrounding moraines. On the map, this history becomes visible through relief, drainage, and the relationship between water and ridge.

Baraboo itself appears as both a civic center and a geographic crossroads, set amid river corridors, roads, wooded tracts, and open countryside. The city is historically associated with the circus industry and with the broader development of Sauk County, yet on this topographic sheet it is presented through the impartial precision of the surveyor: streets, built-up areas, routes, public features, and surrounding terrain are all rendered as part of a larger environmental system. Nearby valleys and hills show how settlement follows easier ground while higher wooded areas remain more irregular and less densely developed. The road network links town, park, rural parcels, reservoirs, trails, and scientific or recreational points of interest, creating a layered portrait of daily movement through a landscape of notable natural distinction.

As a historical document, this map is especially valuable for the comparisons it invites. Its 1994 survey content records the Baraboo area before many subsequent changes in development, conservation practice, tourism infrastructure, and regional land use. The topographic detail allows later viewers to study how roads expanded, forests shifted, water features were managed, and the edge between urban Baraboo and its surrounding countryside evolved. At the same time, the enduring landforms—the Baraboo hills, the parklands, the lake basins, and the measured rise and fall of the terrain—assert a continuity that outlasts human alteration. Elegant, scientific, and quietly evocative, the “Baraboo” quadrangle transforms a Wisconsin locality into a precise historical landscape, where geology, settlement, and recreation are held in lasting cartographic balance.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Baraboo
• Devil's Lake State Park
• Lakes (unnamed)
• Rivers (unnamed)
• Nearby valleys and hills (unnamed)
• Roads and highways (unnamed)
• Trails (unnamed)
• Forested areas (unnamed)
• Reservoirs (unnamed)
• Historic and natural landmarks (unnamed)
• Points of interest related to scientific reserves and parks

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a United States federal agency known for scientific and topographical mapping.
• Historical 1:24,000 scale topographical map dated 1994, with a 1999 imprint.
• The USGS has played a major role in mapping and documenting U.S. natural resources and land use since its establishment in 1879.
• Uses standard topographic conventions, including contour lines, shaded relief, blue water features, and distinct symbols for populated areas.
• Depicts varied terrain, including flat land, hill formations, bodies of water, natural contours, and elevation changes.
• Reflects the geographical and infrastructural context of the area as of 1994, allowing comparison with modern maps to observe changes in land use and development.

Looking for a particular place? Review the detailed images to confirm that the town, landmark or feature you have in mind appears on the map. If you are unsure, ask our workshop to check before you order.

Detailed maps are especially rewarding at larger sizes, where names, boundaries and decorative features have more room to be appreciated. Use the close-up preview and size guide to choose the right scale for your wall.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

Where personalisation is available, you can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. See personalised map examples.

Every piece is printed to museum-grade archival standards using fade-resistant pigment inks on acid-free matte paper. Choose an unframed map print, framed map or canvas using the finish options above. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.

With its rich detail and strong sense of place, this map makes a considered gift for a new home, anniversary, retirement or anyone with a personal connection to the area shown. Still deciding? Explore our collection of rare old and vintage maps to discover another place, period or style.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.