Rare Old Map of Butte, Montana by USGS, 1959: Homestake Pass & Deer Lodge National Forest
Restored in our London workshop from the original 1961 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 in London • Printed and framed in the EU
Restored from the original 1961 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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Created in 1959 and published in 1961, “Butte North” is a richly informative US Geological Survey topographical map capturing the storied landscape...
Continue readingCreated in 1959 and published in 1961, “Butte North” is a richly informative US Geological Survey topographical map capturing the storied landscape of Butte, Montana, at a scale of 1:62,500. The map presents the city and its surrounding high country at a moment when Butte’s identity was still deeply intertwined with copper mining, rail transport, and the rugged demands of life along the Continental Divide. Its original title is spare and authoritative, in the classic USGS manner, yet the terrain it describes is anything but simple. Urban streets, industrial workings, roads, railways, creeks, passes, and mountain contours are woven together into a precise mid-century portrait of one of the American West’s most historically consequential mining districts.
The US Geological Survey, established in 1879, brought to maps like this a disciplined scientific clarity shaped by decades of national surveying. “Butte North” reflects that institutional purpose: to make the land legible through measured elevation, hydrology, settlement, and infrastructure. Contour lines articulate the dramatic rise and fall of the terrain, revealing how Butte occupies a complex mountain setting rather than a simple urban plain. Green-tinted forested areas, carefully differentiated roads, railway symbols, and marked mines create a layered visual language that is both practical and elegant. The result is a map that rewards close reading, allowing the viewer to move from the industrial geometry of Butte to the surrounding ridges, drainages, and forested uplands with remarkable ease.
Butte itself dominates the historical imagination of this sheet. Once celebrated as “the Richest Hill on Earth,” the city grew around immense copper deposits that helped power electrification, telecommunications, and industrial expansion across the United States. Mines and mining sites marked on the map are not merely technical symbols; they point to a landscape profoundly shaped by extraction, labor, immigration, capital, and environmental transformation. Silver Bow County’s roads and rail lines testify to the networks that connected ore, workers, supplies, and markets. In this sense, the map records more than topography—it captures the spatial structure of a mining metropolis whose fortunes influenced national industry and whose legacy remains central to Montana’s cultural memory.
Beyond the city, the map opens into a dramatic mountain geography. Homestake Pass and the Continental Divide evoke the grand physical architecture of the northern Rockies, where waters part toward different continental destinies. The Highland Mountains, East Ridge, and the broader uplands around Butte are rendered through dense, expressive contours that convey both beauty and difficulty. Streams such as Blacktail Creek, Warm Springs Creek, the Little Blackfoot River, and the Big Hole River’s wider regional presence connect the mapped terrain to the larger hydrological systems of western Montana. These waterways, passes, and ridgelines formed natural corridors and barriers, shaping travel, settlement, mining access, and the placement of roads and railways across the high country.
As a historical snapshot, “Butte North” is especially compelling because it preserves the region before later decades of economic restructuring, environmental remediation, and urban change altered both the city and its surroundings. The Deer Lodge National Forest and nearby mountainous wildlands suggest the proximity of extractive industry to expansive natural terrain, a defining tension in Montana history. Areas associated today with protected landscapes, including the Anaconda-Pintler region, add further resonance when viewed against this earlier cartographic record. With its careful balance of scientific precision and visual atmosphere, the map offers a vivid mid-century view of Butte’s urban-industrial core set within a formidable western landscape of forests, passes, rivers, and mineral-rich mountains.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Butte, Montana
- Little Blackfoot River
- Big Hole River
- Warm Springs Creek
- Blacktail Creek
- Homestake Pass
- Deer Lodge National Forest
- Highland Mountains
- Silver Bow County
- Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness
- East Ridge
- Bowl of the Butte
- Ruby Valley
- Continental Divide
- Various roads, identified by different line types
- Railway lines, identified through specific symbols
- Mines and mining sites, marked with unique icons
Historical context & cartographic details
- Map name: Butte North
- Produced by: US Geological Survey, also known as USGS
- Publication history: Created in 1959 and published in 1961
- Scale: 1:62,500 topographical map
- Historical snapshot: Shows the region’s geography and human infrastructure as recorded in the late 1950s and early 1960s
- Publisher background: The US Geological Survey was established in 1879 and is known for mapping and scientific information about U.S. landscapes, natural resources, and hazards
- Design details: Uses contour lines to show elevation changes
- Color treatment: Uses distinctive color schemes to differentiate land types, including green for forested areas
- Topographic character: Depicts both urban development and mountainous terrain in and around the mapped region
- Historical significance: Reflects the area before later economic shifts, environmental changes, and urban development transformed the region
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.
Created in 1959 and published in 1961, “Butte North” is a richly informative US Geological Survey topographical map capturing the storied landscape of Butte, Montana, at a scale of 1:62,500. The map presents the city and its surrounding high country at a moment when Butte’s identity was still deeply intertwined with copper mining, rail transport, and the rugged demands of life along the Continental Divide. Its original title is spare and authoritative, in the classic USGS manner, yet the terrain it describes is anything but simple. Urban streets, industrial workings, roads, railways, creeks, passes, and mountain contours are woven together into a precise mid-century portrait of one of the American West’s most historically consequential mining districts.
The US Geological Survey, established in 1879, brought to maps like this a disciplined scientific clarity shaped by decades of national surveying. “Butte North” reflects that institutional purpose: to make the land legible through measured elevation, hydrology, settlement, and infrastructure. Contour lines articulate the dramatic rise and fall of the terrain, revealing how Butte occupies a complex mountain setting rather than a simple urban plain. Green-tinted forested areas, carefully differentiated roads, railway symbols, and marked mines create a layered visual language that is both practical and elegant. The result is a map that rewards close reading, allowing the viewer to move from the industrial geometry of Butte to the surrounding ridges, drainages, and forested uplands with remarkable ease.
Butte itself dominates the historical imagination of this sheet. Once celebrated as “the Richest Hill on Earth,” the city grew around immense copper deposits that helped power electrification, telecommunications, and industrial expansion across the United States. Mines and mining sites marked on the map are not merely technical symbols; they point to a landscape profoundly shaped by extraction, labor, immigration, capital, and environmental transformation. Silver Bow County’s roads and rail lines testify to the networks that connected ore, workers, supplies, and markets. In this sense, the map records more than topography—it captures the spatial structure of a mining metropolis whose fortunes influenced national industry and whose legacy remains central to Montana’s cultural memory.
Beyond the city, the map opens into a dramatic mountain geography. Homestake Pass and the Continental Divide evoke the grand physical architecture of the northern Rockies, where waters part toward different continental destinies. The Highland Mountains, East Ridge, and the broader uplands around Butte are rendered through dense, expressive contours that convey both beauty and difficulty. Streams such as Blacktail Creek, Warm Springs Creek, the Little Blackfoot River, and the Big Hole River’s wider regional presence connect the mapped terrain to the larger hydrological systems of western Montana. These waterways, passes, and ridgelines formed natural corridors and barriers, shaping travel, settlement, mining access, and the placement of roads and railways across the high country.
As a historical snapshot, “Butte North” is especially compelling because it preserves the region before later decades of economic restructuring, environmental remediation, and urban change altered both the city and its surroundings. The Deer Lodge National Forest and nearby mountainous wildlands suggest the proximity of extractive industry to expansive natural terrain, a defining tension in Montana history. Areas associated today with protected landscapes, including the Anaconda-Pintler region, add further resonance when viewed against this earlier cartographic record. With its careful balance of scientific precision and visual atmosphere, the map offers a vivid mid-century view of Butte’s urban-industrial core set within a formidable western landscape of forests, passes, rivers, and mineral-rich mountains.
Cities, towns and places on this map
- Butte, Montana
- Little Blackfoot River
- Big Hole River
- Warm Springs Creek
- Blacktail Creek
- Homestake Pass
- Deer Lodge National Forest
- Highland Mountains
- Silver Bow County
- Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness
- East Ridge
- Bowl of the Butte
- Ruby Valley
- Continental Divide
- Various roads, identified by different line types
- Railway lines, identified through specific symbols
- Mines and mining sites, marked with unique icons
Historical context & cartographic details
- Map name: Butte North
- Produced by: US Geological Survey, also known as USGS
- Publication history: Created in 1959 and published in 1961
- Scale: 1:62,500 topographical map
- Historical snapshot: Shows the region’s geography and human infrastructure as recorded in the late 1950s and early 1960s
- Publisher background: The US Geological Survey was established in 1879 and is known for mapping and scientific information about U.S. landscapes, natural resources, and hazards
- Design details: Uses contour lines to show elevation changes
- Color treatment: Uses distinctive color schemes to differentiate land types, including green for forested areas
- Topographic character: Depicts both urban development and mountainous terrain in and around the mapped region
- Historical significance: Reflects the area before later economic shifts, environmental changes, and urban development transformed the region
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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