Rare Old Map of Laramie, Wyoming by USGS, 1963: University of Wyoming & Laramie River
Restored in our London workshop from the original 1964 map and printed to museum-grade archival standards. Full description
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Choose two eligible works and receive 20% off both. Choose three and the lowest-priced one is complimentary, a maximum saving of 33%.
Mix and match eligible standard maps and fine-art prints. No code is required; the offer is applied automatically at checkout.
Standard made-to-order configurations are included. Bespoke sizes, personalised designs and commissioned work are excluded.
Need delivery to different addresses? Contact us before ordering.The Collector’s Offer
Choose two eligible works and receive 20% off both. Choose three and the lowest-priced one is complimentary, a maximum saving of 33%.
Mix and match eligible standard maps and fine-art prints. No code is required; the offer is applied automatically at checkout.
Standard made-to-order configurations are included. Bespoke sizes, personalised designs and commissioned work are excluded.
Need delivery to different addresses? Contact us before ordering.
Restored from the original 1964 map and printed to museum-grade archival standards. Full description
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Gift message & custom finish
If you want to add a gift message, or a finish (jigsaw, aluminium board, etc.) that is not available here, please request it in the "order note" when you check out.
Every order is custom made, so if you need the size adjusted slightly, or printed on an unusual material, just let us know. We've done thousands of custom orders over the years, so there's (almost) nothing we can't manage.
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Published in 1964 from 1963 survey work, the USGS quadrangle titled “Laramie” presents a finely observed portrait of southeastern Wyoming at a...
Continue readingPublished in 1964 from 1963 survey work, the USGS quadrangle titled “Laramie” presents a finely observed portrait of southeastern Wyoming at a pivotal moment in its modern development. At 1:24,000 scale, it captures the city of Laramie with the precision and restraint characteristic of mid-century American topographic mapping. Downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, rail corridors, highways, the University of Wyoming, and the Laramie Airport are all set within a broader landscape of open ground, agricultural tracts, creek bottoms, and rising terrain. The map’s original title is pleasingly direct, yet what it contains is richly layered: a civic, geological, and infrastructural record of a western town shaped by transportation, education, and the surrounding high plains.
The United States Geological Survey brought to this map nearly a century of federal mapping expertise. Founded in 1879, the USGS became central to the systematic depiction of the American landscape, producing maps that served engineers, scientists, planners, landowners, and travelers alike. Its topographic quadrangles are especially admired for their clarity: roads, railroads, watercourses, buildings, and relief are organized into a visual language that is at once technical and elegant. In “Laramie,” that language is particularly effective, balancing the rectilinear order of the city with the irregular forms of rivers, creeks, and contours. The result is not merely a utilitarian document, but a disciplined cartographic study of how settlement rests upon terrain.
Laramie itself appears as the map’s urban anchor, with the University of Wyoming standing out as one of the city’s defining institutions. The city’s grid, downtown core, residential districts, arterial roads, and rail lines reveal the structure of a regional center whose growth was closely tied to education, ranching, rail transport, and highway travel. The railroad, historically vital to Laramie’s development, remains a prominent feature, threading through the mapped landscape with the authority of an older transportation era. Nearby highways, including US Route 287 and the corridor of Interstate 80, point to the increasing dominance of automobile and freight movement in the postwar West, when older railroad towns were being reoriented toward national road networks.
The natural geography is rendered with the subtle power of contour lines, which give the sheet its distinctive topographic character. Around Laramie, the land is far from flat: the map records slopes, ridges, shallow valleys, and the textured approach toward the Laramie Mountains. The Laramie River and Coal Creek provide hydrological structure, tracing low ground through a landscape of varied elevation and use. These watercourses are more than decorative features; they help explain patterns of settlement, agriculture, and transportation. Parks, open lands, and recreational areas appear in relation to the same physical framework, reminding the viewer that Laramie’s urban form is inseparable from the high-elevation Wyoming basin in which it sits.
As a historical document, this map offers a compelling snapshot of Laramie in the early 1960s, before later decades of suburban expansion, highway modification, and institutional growth reshaped the city’s footprint. Its symbols for land use, transportation, drainage, and built features make it possible to read the community as it was organized at that moment: a university town, a railroad town, an airport-served regional hub, and a settlement surrounded by working landscapes. Compared with present-day maps, the 1963 survey reveals changes in infrastructure, population distribution, and the boundaries between urban and rural land. It is a quietly revealing record of a western city poised between historic patterns and modern transformation.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Laramie, WY
- University of Wyoming
- Laramie River
- Coal Creek
- Various residential neighborhoods
- Interstate 80
- US Route 287
- Laramie Airport
- Surrounding agricultural areas
- Laramie Mountains
- Various parks and recreational areas
- Downtown Laramie
- Railroads and stops
- Various highways and arterial roads
Historical context & cartographic details
- Produced by the United States Geological Survey, or USGS.
- Historical 1:24,000 topographical map of Laramie, Wyoming and the surrounding area.
- Surveyed or dated 1963, with a 1964 imprint.
- The USGS is a U.S. government scientific agency known for geological, hydrological, and topographical studies.
- The USGS played a major role in developing detailed mapping across the United States.
- Uses a typical topographic style with contour lines to show elevation changes.
- Shows varied elevations, hills, valleys, and rougher mountainous terrain around Laramie.
- Provides a snapshot of Laramie in the early 1960s, including urban development and land use.
- Useful for comparing historic infrastructure, population growth, and environmental change with present-day maps.
- Includes symbols for different land use types, helping show the area’s geography and infrastructure layout.
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.
Published in 1964 from 1963 survey work, the USGS quadrangle titled “Laramie” presents a finely observed portrait of southeastern Wyoming at a pivotal moment in its modern development. At 1:24,000 scale, it captures the city of Laramie with the precision and restraint characteristic of mid-century American topographic mapping. Downtown streets, residential neighborhoods, rail corridors, highways, the University of Wyoming, and the Laramie Airport are all set within a broader landscape of open ground, agricultural tracts, creek bottoms, and rising terrain. The map’s original title is pleasingly direct, yet what it contains is richly layered: a civic, geological, and infrastructural record of a western town shaped by transportation, education, and the surrounding high plains.
The United States Geological Survey brought to this map nearly a century of federal mapping expertise. Founded in 1879, the USGS became central to the systematic depiction of the American landscape, producing maps that served engineers, scientists, planners, landowners, and travelers alike. Its topographic quadrangles are especially admired for their clarity: roads, railroads, watercourses, buildings, and relief are organized into a visual language that is at once technical and elegant. In “Laramie,” that language is particularly effective, balancing the rectilinear order of the city with the irregular forms of rivers, creeks, and contours. The result is not merely a utilitarian document, but a disciplined cartographic study of how settlement rests upon terrain.
Laramie itself appears as the map’s urban anchor, with the University of Wyoming standing out as one of the city’s defining institutions. The city’s grid, downtown core, residential districts, arterial roads, and rail lines reveal the structure of a regional center whose growth was closely tied to education, ranching, rail transport, and highway travel. The railroad, historically vital to Laramie’s development, remains a prominent feature, threading through the mapped landscape with the authority of an older transportation era. Nearby highways, including US Route 287 and the corridor of Interstate 80, point to the increasing dominance of automobile and freight movement in the postwar West, when older railroad towns were being reoriented toward national road networks.
The natural geography is rendered with the subtle power of contour lines, which give the sheet its distinctive topographic character. Around Laramie, the land is far from flat: the map records slopes, ridges, shallow valleys, and the textured approach toward the Laramie Mountains. The Laramie River and Coal Creek provide hydrological structure, tracing low ground through a landscape of varied elevation and use. These watercourses are more than decorative features; they help explain patterns of settlement, agriculture, and transportation. Parks, open lands, and recreational areas appear in relation to the same physical framework, reminding the viewer that Laramie’s urban form is inseparable from the high-elevation Wyoming basin in which it sits.
As a historical document, this map offers a compelling snapshot of Laramie in the early 1960s, before later decades of suburban expansion, highway modification, and institutional growth reshaped the city’s footprint. Its symbols for land use, transportation, drainage, and built features make it possible to read the community as it was organized at that moment: a university town, a railroad town, an airport-served regional hub, and a settlement surrounded by working landscapes. Compared with present-day maps, the 1963 survey reveals changes in infrastructure, population distribution, and the boundaries between urban and rural land. It is a quietly revealing record of a western city poised between historic patterns and modern transformation.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Laramie, WY
- University of Wyoming
- Laramie River
- Coal Creek
- Various residential neighborhoods
- Interstate 80
- US Route 287
- Laramie Airport
- Surrounding agricultural areas
- Laramie Mountains
- Various parks and recreational areas
- Downtown Laramie
- Railroads and stops
- Various highways and arterial roads
Historical context & cartographic details
- Produced by the United States Geological Survey, or USGS.
- Historical 1:24,000 topographical map of Laramie, Wyoming and the surrounding area.
- Surveyed or dated 1963, with a 1964 imprint.
- The USGS is a U.S. government scientific agency known for geological, hydrological, and topographical studies.
- The USGS played a major role in developing detailed mapping across the United States.
- Uses a typical topographic style with contour lines to show elevation changes.
- Shows varied elevations, hills, valleys, and rougher mountainous terrain around Laramie.
- Provides a snapshot of Laramie in the early 1960s, including urban development and land use.
- Useful for comparing historic infrastructure, population growth, and environmental change with present-day maps.
- Includes symbols for different land use types, helping show the area’s geography and infrastructure layout.
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.
Many of our maps and art prints are chosen as thoughtful gifts for homes, offices, studies and meaningful places.
Choose a framed option for the easiest ready-to-hang gift, or choose an unframed print if the recipient may prefer to select their own frame.
We make orders locally in 23 countries around the world, so gifts can often be produced close to the recipient. This helps them arrive faster, travel more safely, and avoid customs or import duty surprises.
- We can deliver directly to the recipient
- Framed pieces arrive ready to hang
- Unframed prints are carefully packed in a strong protective tube
- Almost every order is made locally, for faster, safer gifting
- 90-day returns give the recipient time to decide
If you are not sure what to choose, please contact us. We can help you pick the right map, size, finish or delivery option.
Most orders are made locally and delivered in around 2–3 working days, depending on the product, size and destination.
We print and frame maps and artwork in 23 countries around the world, so your order is usually made close to you or your recipient. That means faster delivery, less time in transit, and no customs or import duty surprises.
Personalised and customised pieces usually take an extra 1–2 working days, because we prepare your design and send it to you for approval before printing.
Very large framed orders can take a little longer, as they need extra care in production and delivery.
Every order is carefully packaged: unframed prints are sent in a strong protective tube, while framed pieces are securely packed with protective materials around the frame.
If you need your order by a particular date, please contact us before ordering. We’ll check the best production route and delivery option for your location.
Express delivery is available at checkout for most countries. Next-day delivery is available in the UK, US, Singapore and the UAE.
Your order is covered by our 90-day returns policy and 10-year guarantee.
Our standard frame is a gallery-style black ash hardwood frame, with a simple, modern look. It is approximately 20mm (0.8in) wide. You can also view some lovely customer photos of framed maps and art.
We use super-clear acrylic glazing, also known as Perspex or Acrylite, instead of traditional glass. It is lighter, safer, and has lower reflectivity, giving the artwork a clearer, cleaner appearance.
Six standard frame colours are available at no extra cost: black, dark brown, dark grey, oak, white, and antique gold. Custom framing and mounting/matting is also available for customers looking for something more specific.
Most maps, art prints, and illustrations are also available as a framed canvas. We use matte cotton canvas, stretch it over a sustainably sourced wooden box frame, and then float the piece within a wooden outer frame. The finished result is beautifully presented, with no glazing between you and the artwork.
All frames are supplied ready to hang, with either string or brackets fitted to the back. Very large frames will include heavy-duty hanging plates and/or a mounting baton. If you have any questions, please get in touch.
We can also supply old maps and artwork on canvas, foam board, cotton rag, and other materials.
If you would prefer to frame your map or artwork yourself, please read our size guide before ordering.
Every Unique Maps piece begins with an authentic cartographic source or an original design from our London studio.
For our historic maps, we source rare originals from libraries, archives, auction houses and private collections around the world. We carefully restore each map for print—repairing age-related damage, balancing colour and improving clarity while preserving its original detail, texture and character.
Once restored, the map is prepared for your chosen size and finish. Your piece is then printed and, where selected, framed close to its delivery destination.
Our map prints use acid-free 200gsm archival matte paper and fade-resistant pigment inks, creating a rich, non-glossy finish designed to last. Framed maps use crystal-clear optical acrylic and arrive ready to hang.
Canvas, cotton-rag and other specialist presentations are also available. Learn more about our materials and finishes.
Personalising your map
You can add a short title or dedication, mark one meaningful place, or request one considered visual detail. For personalised designs, we send a proof before printing and you can request changes before approval.
For more complex bespoke commissions, contact our design team.
Original or Aged
Choose Original for true-to-source colour, or Aged for a warmer, richer antique character created with our specialist ageing process. See examples of our Aged maps.
We’ve been restoring and producing maps and art prints since 1984, and we stand behind every piece.
Every order is covered by our 10-year guarantee and damage-free delivery guarantee. If your piece arrives damaged, we’ll replace or remake it free of charge. If anything else isn’t right, contact our workshop team and we’ll put it right promptly.
See our returns and refund policy for full details.
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