Published in 1922 by the United States Geological Survey, “Garrison” presents a precise early twentieth-century portrait of central North Dakota around the town of Garrison and the Missouri River country. At a scale of 1:62,500, the map belongs to the USGS topographic tradition that brought scientific order to the American landscape, recording roads, railways, watercourses, settlement patterns, and relief with disciplined clarity. Its title is spare but evocative: a single place-name anchoring a broad rural district of townships, sections, valleys, and prairie uplands. The map captures the region before some of its most dramatic later transformations, including the mid-century damming of the Missouri and the creation of Lake Sakakawea, making it a valuable document of the landscape as it was understood in 1922.

The United States Geological Survey, founded in 1879, became one of the great cartographic institutions of the modern era, combining exploration, geology, hydrology, and public-land administration into a national mapping program. In “Garrison,” that mission is visible in the map’s restrained but information-rich design. The grid of townships, sections, and parcels overlays the terrain, reflecting the cadastral logic of the Public Land Survey System and the agricultural settlement of the northern plains. Roads and railways connect Garrison to neighboring communities and rural districts, tracing the infrastructure that linked farms, markets, and river crossings. This is not merely a map of place, but a map of use: land surveyed, divided, worked, and increasingly tied into the economic networks of the early twentieth-century Midwest.

The topography around Garrison is rendered through the visual language of early USGS mapping, with elevation contours, relief treatment, and water features working together to describe a landscape of rolling hills, shallow valleys, prairie drainage, and riverine margins. The Missouri River is the dominant natural presence, its course shaping settlement, transportation, and the later history of the region. Smaller lakes and wetlands, some unnamed, punctuate the surrounding country, while green areas indicate wooded or vegetated tracts amid the more open agricultural land. The map’s careful depiction of height, slope, and drainage gives the viewer a sense of the subtle but consequential variations in prairie terrain, where even modest ridges, coulees, and draws could influence roads, farms, and settlement patterns.

Garrison itself appears as a focal point within a wider agricultural and transportation landscape, a town whose position reflects the practical geographies of rail access, roads, water, and surveyed land. In the early 1920s, North Dakota was still being shaped by homesteading legacies, grain farming, and the expansion of rural infrastructure. The map records this world through its pattern of routes and parcels, revealing a countryside organized into regular sections but enlivened by the irregularities of rivers, lakes, hills, and valleys. The contrast between the rational grid and the natural terrain is one of the map’s quiet pleasures: a visual dialogue between federal survey, local settlement, and the enduring forms of the land itself.

Seen today, “Garrison” gains additional historical resonance because the geography it records was later altered by one of the Missouri River’s great engineering projects. The creation of Garrison Dam and Lake Sakakawea in the mid-twentieth century transformed the region, inundating former river bottoms and reshaping transportation, recreation, ecology, and settlement. This 1922 map therefore preserves an earlier Missouri River landscape, before the reservoir became a defining feature of western and central North Dakota. Its combination of scientific precision and historical immediacy makes it especially compelling: a government topographic sheet that now reads as a layered document of land, water, ambition, and change on the northern plains.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Garrison, ND
• Lake Sakakawea
• Missouri River
• Several unnamed lakes
• Various sections, parcels, and municipalities designated on the grid
• Nearby hills and valleys
• Roads and railways connecting surrounding areas
• Forested areas indicated in green
• Agricultural lands marked by differing shading or patterns

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the United States Geological Survey, this historical 1:62,500 topographical map shows Garrison, North Dakota and the surrounding area.
• The map is dated 1922; USGS records the publication year as 1922, with no separate imprint year specified.
• The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the U.S. government, founded in 1879, and known for its mapping and geological research.
• The map uses a color scheme typical of early 20th-century topographic maps.
• Elevation changes are represented with hachures, along with elevation contours, water bodies, and shaded relief.
• A clear grid overlay provides reference for sections, parcels, and surveyed land divisions.
• The map reflects the geographical understanding of North Dakota in the early 20th century.
• Later changes in land use, agriculture, and urban development have transformed the areas shown since the map’s creation.

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.