Published with a 1958 imprint from 1956 data, the “Silverton Quadrangle” presents a richly detailed mid-century portrait of Oregon’s Willamette Valley edge, centered on Silverton and Mount Angel. At 1:24,000 scale, it captures the intimate geography of farms, creeks, wooded slopes, roads, and settlement patterns with the precision that made United States Geological Survey quadrangles indispensable. This is a landscape where the broad agricultural rhythms of the valley begin to meet the rising foothills to the east, and the map’s contours reveal that transition beautifully. Silverton appears as a compact urban center shaped by Silver Creek, while Mount Angel stands amid a patchwork of roads, fields, and rural holdings that evoke the region’s enduring agricultural character.

The United States Geological Survey, founded in 1879, became the nation’s great interpreter of terrain, translating vast and varied American landscapes into rigorous, readable maps. By the 1950s, its quadrangle series represented a mature cartographic language: systematic, standardized, and exceptionally useful to engineers, planners, hikers, landowners, and government agencies alike. The “Silverton Quadrangle” belongs to this golden age of practical topographic mapping, when postwar growth made accurate land information increasingly important. Its clarity reflects the USGS commitment to public knowledge, combining scientific measurement with a restrained visual elegance. Every contour, stream course, road, and township detail serves a purpose, yet together they form a remarkably evocative image of a particular place at a particular moment in Oregon’s history.

Water gives this map much of its life and structure. Silver Creek winds through and around Silverton, while Abiqua Creek, Mill Creek, Butte Creek, and Bear Creek thread the surrounding countryside, their blue lines tracing the drainage patterns that shaped settlement, farming, and travel. To the west, the larger presence of the Willamette River situates the quadrangle within one of the Pacific Northwest’s most fertile and historically significant valleys. Small lakes and ponds, marked in blue, punctuate the rural landscape, while tributaries carve subtle valleys through the terrain. These waterways were more than scenic features: they influenced mill sites, roads, field boundaries, floodplains, and the placement of communities, making the map a compact record of both natural systems and human adaptation.

Cartographically, the map is a fine example of the mid-twentieth-century USGS style: disciplined, legible, and quietly handsome. Contour lines articulate hills, ridges, and valleys with measured precision, making elevation change immediately intelligible without overwhelming the eye. Shaded relief and carefully differentiated color add depth and hierarchy, with vibrant greens marking forested areas and pale open spaces suggesting fields, clearings, and cultivated land. Roads and trails are rendered with practical clarity, giving the viewer a sense of how people moved through this landscape before later waves of development altered routes and expanded urban edges. The fonts are clean and purposeful, typical of the era, balancing technical authority with an inviting readability that rewards close inspection.

As a historical document, the “Silverton Quadrangle” preserves the region at a moment of transition. The towns of Silverton and Mount Angel were already well established, yet much of the surrounding area remained defined by farms, creeks, timbered slopes, and a network of smaller roads rather than modern suburban expansion. The map captures land use patterns before many later changes in transportation, conservation, and development reshaped the Willamette Valley. Its contours and green woodland areas hint at the physical constraints and opportunities that guided growth, while its rural road web records everyday connections between communities, fields, and waterways. For collectors, it offers not merely a geographic reference, but a beautifully ordered snapshot of mid-century Oregon.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Silverton, Oregon
• Mount Angel, Oregon
• Abiqua Creek
• Mill Creek
• Butte Creek
• Silver Creek
• Bear Creek
• The Willamette River
• Areas of forested land marked in green
• Smaller roads and trails traversing the landscape
• Nearby hills and elevation points indicated by contour lines
• Lakes or ponds indicated by blue coloring

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey.
• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map.
• Dated 1956 with a 1958 imprint.
• Shows Mount Angel, Silverton, and surrounding areas in Oregon.
• Created by the US Geological Survey, known for detailed topographical maps used in civilian and military planning.
• Features contour lines and shaded relief to clearly represent elevation changes.
• Uses color to distinguish land cover types, including forests and fields.
• Vibrant greens indicate vegetation and forested areas.
• Typical mid-20th-century USGS cartographic style, with clear, easily readable fonts.
• Shows significant elevation changes, including mountains, valleys, and nearby hills.
• Includes winding river systems and waterways.
• Captures a mid-20th-century snapshot of development patterns and land use.
• Useful for comparing later changes such as urban development, land conservation, and transportation route modifications.

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.