Published in 1970 from 1961 cartographic work, the US Geological Survey’s “Brule Quadrangle” presents a richly detailed topographic portrait of northwestern Wisconsin, centered on Lake Nebagamon and the surrounding lake-and-forest country. At a scale of 1:62,500, the map belongs to the classic USGS quadrangle tradition: precise, restrained, and deeply informative. Its network of contour lines, waterways, roads, settlements, and woodland markings captures the region at a moment when rural land use, recreation, and conservation were all reshaping the Upper Midwest. Lake Nebagamon appears prominently, anchoring a landscape of scattered communities, timberlands, wetlands, and glacially formed waters, while the 1970 imprint places the map within an era of renewed federal attention to environmental survey and public land knowledge.

The United States Geological Survey, founded in 1879 within the Department of the Interior, became one of America’s most trusted cartographic institutions by combining field science with rigorous map production. The “Brule Quadrangle” reflects that legacy in its disciplined visual language: color-coded terrain, careful hydrography, and contour intervals that translate subtle changes in elevation into an immediately legible landscape. Rather than embellishment, its beauty lies in measured exactitude. Every stream bend, road alignment, lake margin, and wooded tract has been rendered as part of a coherent geographical system. Such maps served hikers, foresters, engineers, planners, and scientists alike, but they also now offer a quietly compelling historical record of how federal surveyors understood and organized the American landscape.

Lake Nebagamon, one of the map’s principal features, sits amid a broader constellation of northern Wisconsin waters, including Pigeon Lake, Iron River Lake, Hillsborough Lake, and numerous smaller unnamed lakes and streams. These waterways speak to the glacial origins of the region, where retreating ice left depressions, moraines, wetlands, and drainage patterns that continue to define the area’s ecology. Stony Brook, Mission Creek, Tiger Creek, and Smith Creek thread through the quadrangle, giving the map a delicate hydrological structure. The inclusion of Lake Superior near the northern reach of the area expands the sense of place dramatically, linking local inland waters to one of the continent’s great freshwater seas and to the wider environmental history of the Upper Great Lakes.

The communities shown—Lake Nebagamon, Brule, Cloverland, and Iron River among them—appear within a landscape still defined more by water, forest, and relief than by dense development. Roads and settlements are present, yet they are embedded in a terrain whose contours and vegetation dominate the composition. This balance makes the map especially evocative as a mid-twentieth-century record of Wisconsin’s north country, where logging histories, small-town economies, recreation, and conservation overlapped. The terrain is not flat or passive: contour lines reveal a varied surface of rises, valleys, shorelines, and drainage divides. For anyone interested in land-use change, the map offers a fascinating view of the region before later decades of subdivision, infrastructure expansion, and changing forest management.

As a topographical object, the “Brule Quadrangle” is at once functional and atmospheric. Its colors separate land forms and vegetation with clarity, while its contours create a subtle visual rhythm across the page. The map rewards close looking: a named creek leading toward a lake, a road bending around a marshy hollow, an isolated pond tucked into woodland, or a township pattern intersecting with the older logic of terrain. It is a document of measurement, but also of place—an elegant synthesis of science, geography, and historical memory. For collectors of American maps, Great Lakes material, or USGS quadrangles, it offers a refined glimpse into the mapped landscape of Wisconsin in the early 1960s.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Lake Nebagamon
• Brule
• Cloverland
• Lake Superior
• Stony Brook
• Mission Creek
• Iron River
• Pigeon Lake
• Tiger Creek
• Smith Creek
• Iron River Lake
• Hillsborough Lake
• Various unnamed lakes and streams

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
• Historical 1:62,500 topographical map of Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin, and the surrounding area.
• Dated 1961 and published with a 1970 imprint.
• Uses color-coded elevation and vegetation, typical of USGS topographic maps.
• Includes contour lines to show elevation changes and a clear scale for measurement.
• Displays varied terrain, including lakes, forests, and significant elevation changes.
• Provides a historical snapshot of the landscape in the early 1960s, showing land use, green spaces, and natural areas before later development and land-management changes.

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 18x24in (45x60cm) 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.