Titled “Georgetown,” this United States Geological Survey map presents the county-seat city of Georgetown, Texas, and its surrounding Hill Country margins as surveyed in 1982 and published with a 1987 imprint. At the precise 1:24,000 scale, the sheet captures a moment when Georgetown was poised between small-town Central Texas identity and the accelerating suburban growth that would later reshape Williamson County. Streets, rail lines, highways, waterways, and neighborhood patterns appear within the disciplined visual language of federal topographic cartography. The result is both scientific record and historical portrait: a carefully measured view of Georgetown before many late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century expansions transformed its edges, road network, and residential footprint.

The USGS, founded in 1879, became the nation’s preeminent authority for systematic mapping, and this Georgetown sheet exemplifies its mature topographic style. Contour lines articulate the rises, slopes, valleys, and drainage patterns that give the area its distinctive terrain, while color differentiations distinguish urban development, vegetation, open land, water, and transportation corridors. Unlike purely political or road maps, this sheet reveals how settlement sits upon the land: Georgetown’s streets and neighborhoods are shown in relation to creeks, ridgelines, reservoirs, and the subtle undulations of Central Texas limestone country. Its clarity and restraint are hallmarks of USGS design, where beauty emerges from precision, hierarchy, and the patient accumulation of geographic fact.

Lake Georgetown is one of the most compelling features on the map, anchoring the landscape to the west and northwest of the city. Created by the damming of the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, the reservoir became an important water-management, recreation, and flood-control feature for the growing region. Its coves, inlets, and surrounding green spaces contrast with the gridded and curving patterns of Georgetown’s developed areas. Nearby drainage systems, including Salado Creek, North Fork Salado Creek, Cowan Creek, and smaller tributaries, are rendered with the attentive detail typical of USGS hydrology. These blue-threaded features reveal the environmental structure beneath local settlement, showing how water shaped roads, property lines, open spaces, and the expansion of neighborhoods.

Georgetown itself appears as a layered urban organism, with residential districts, transportation routes, and civic infrastructure set amid the older rhythms of Central Texas terrain. Major highways and connecting roads indicate the city’s growing regional importance, while railroad tracks and associated infrastructure recall an earlier era of commerce and movement. By the early 1980s, Georgetown was already tied closely to the expanding Austin metropolitan sphere, yet the map still conveys a distinct town surrounded by open land, creek corridors, and agricultural or undeveloped tracts. For collectors interested in urban change, this sheet offers a valuable snapshot before the dramatic population growth that would make Georgetown one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States decades later.

As a historical document, the map is especially evocative because it records both permanence and transition. The hills, valleys, waterways, and limestone-influenced drainage patterns belong to a deep natural geography, while the streets, neighborhoods, roads, and managed landscapes reflect a particular human moment in the early 1980s. Parks and preserved green spaces around the urban area hint at the region’s recreational and environmental value, while the mapped contours emphasize the rugged texture often hidden by modern development. For admirers of Texas cartography, USGS topographic mapping, or the history of suburban expansion, “Georgetown” is a richly informative view of place—an elegant technical rendering of a city and landscape on the threshold of transformation.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Georgetown, Texas
• Lake Georgetown
• Salado Creek
• North Fork Salado Creek
• Cowan Creek
• Various smaller bodies of water and drainage areas
• Major highways
• Railroad tracks and associated infrastructure
• Parks and preserved areas, including green spaces surrounding the urban area
• Residential neighborhoods depicted within Georgetown

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map of Georgetown, Texas and surrounding areas.
• Created in 1982 and published with a 1987 imprint.
• Shows Georgetown along with surrounding landscapes, water bodies, and terrain.
• Uses a classic topographical style with contour lines to represent elevation changes.
• Includes color differentiations indicating land use and vegetation types.
• Shows elevations, hills, valleys, and water features in the rugged local terrain.
• Reflects the geography of the area in the early 1980s.
• Useful for understanding later urban expansion, land-use changes, and environmental change in Georgetown, Texas.

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.