Map of Medora, North Dakota by USGS, 1997 – Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Little Missouri River & Badlands

Published in 2001 using survey data from 1997, the U.S. Geological Survey’s “Medora” presents a finely detailed topographical portrait of one of North Dakota’s most evocative landscapes. Centered on the historic town of Medora, the map captures the meeting point of settlement, river valley, and rugged Badlands terrain at a scale suited to close geographical study. Its classic USGS styling—precise contour lines, restrained color, and carefully organized roads, railroads, boundaries, and hydrography—gives the landscape both clarity and depth. The result is a map that reads as both scientific document and historical snapshot, recording Medora at a moment when tourism, conservation, and regional identity were increasingly shaped by the presence of nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Medora itself occupies a place of unusual cultural resonance in the history of the northern Great Plains. Founded in the late nineteenth century and associated with the Marquis de Morès, the town became tied to ranching, rail transport, and western mythology. On this map, Medora appears not as an isolated romantic outpost but as part of a working landscape: connected by U.S. Route 85, rail lines, township grids, park boundaries, and the winding corridor of the Little Missouri River. The cartography quietly reveals how the town’s modern life depends on both access and setting. Its location amid striking but erodible terrain helped transform Medora into a gateway for visitors seeking the dramatic scenery and historical memory of the Badlands.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is one of the map’s defining presences, lending the sheet both geographical drama and national significance. The park preserves landscapes that profoundly influenced Roosevelt during his years as a Dakota rancher in the 1880s, experiences that helped shape his conservation philosophy. The map’s contours trace the broken topography of buttes, draws, ridges, and coulees, allowing the viewer to sense the harsh beauty that drew Roosevelt westward. Nearby wilderness areas, public land designations, and park boundaries speak to a twentieth-century commitment to protecting fragile ecosystems and historically meaningful terrain. In this sense, the map records not only landforms, but also the evolution of American conservation and the preservation of western landscapes.

The Little Missouri River gives structure and movement to the map, carving through the Badlands with a sinuous course that contrasts with the rectilinear logic of roads, sections, and townships. Its valley has long shaped travel, habitat, grazing, and settlement in the region, and the USGS rendering makes clear how water, even in a semi-arid environment, organizes the surrounding land. Features such as Buffalo Gap and the surrounding broken country show the complexity of the terrain, where elevation changes occur in tight succession and landforms are often sculptural in character. Through its contour intervals and drainage patterns, the map reveals a landscape made by erosion, exposure, and geologic time.

As a product of the U.S. Geological Survey, the “Medora” map belongs to a distinguished tradition of American scientific cartography. The USGS has long provided the nation’s most authoritative topographic mapping, supporting geology, land management, engineering, resource planning, conservation, and outdoor navigation. Here, that institutional precision is applied to a landscape of exceptional texture: Badlands escarpments, transportation corridors, parklands, township divisions, and public land designations are all integrated into a coherent visual system. The muted palette and disciplined symbology allow the terrain to emerge without embellishment, making the map especially compelling. It is a richly informative view of a place where natural drama, frontier history, and federal conservation meet.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Medora, ND
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park
• Little Missouri River
• Buffalo Gap
• Badlands
• U.S. Route 85 and other roads
• Railroads
• Adjacent townships and sections
• Forest Service land designations
• Surrounding wilderness areas and parks

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map of Medora, North Dakota and the surrounding area.
• Created from 1997 data and published in 2001.
• Uses a classic USGS topographic style with contour lines to show elevation.
• Features a muted color palette for landforms and a clear layout of roads and landmarks.
• Emphasizes the diverse terrain of the Badlands region, including varying elevations and intricate geological formations.
• Reflects Medora’s changing tourism and economic landscape, especially in relation to the development of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
• The USGS is known for detailed geological and topographical maps used in natural resource management, land-use planning, and scientific research.

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