Published in 1979 by the U.S. Geological Survey, “Sundance, Wyoming - South Dakota” presents a precise 1:100,000-scale portrait of the country around Sundance at the close of the 1970s. The map captures a compelling threshold landscape where the northeastern Wyoming plains rise toward the wooded heights and broken ridges associated with the Black Hills. Its clean USGS topographic language—contour lines, blue hydrology, road classifications, and carefully labeled natural features—turns the region into an intelligible terrain of valleys, creeks, reservoirs, and uplands. Sundance itself appears not merely as a town, but as the organizing point in a wider geography of ranchlands, forested slopes, highways, and drainage systems that shaped settlement, travel, and resource use.

The U.S. Geological Survey brought to this map nearly a century of institutional expertise in measuring and describing the American landscape. Founded in 1879, the USGS became indispensable to explorers, engineers, planners, scientists, and land managers by producing authoritative maps that joined field observation with standardized cartographic design. In this Sundance sheet, that tradition is evident in the disciplined hierarchy of information: highways and secondary roads are clearly differentiated, streams and reservoirs are rendered in blue, and elevation is expressed through the quiet exactitude of contour lines. The result is both practical and elegant, a government map whose apparent restraint conceals a dense accumulation of geographic knowledge about northeastern Wyoming and its adjoining South Dakota borderlands.

The terrain shown is especially rich, encompassing Crook County and the approaches to the Bear Lodge and Black Hills country. Sundance Creek and Little Bear Creek articulate the landscape’s drainage, while ridges, hills, wooded tracts, and canyon forms reveal the alternating openness and ruggedness of the region. Red Canyon suggests the dramatic erosional character found in this part of Wyoming, where exposed strata and sculpted landforms interrupt the rolling high plains. Keyhole Reservoir, one of the notable water bodies in the area, anchors the map’s hydrological story, reflecting the importance of water storage, recreation, and management in a semi-arid western environment. Together, these features create a vivid topographic record of a landscape both inhabited and powerfully shaped by natural forces.

Human movement across this map is traced through roads as much as towns. U.S. Route 14, a major east-west corridor, connects the Sundance area to the broader Black Hills and northern plains, while Wyoming Highway 585 and other labeled roads describe the local network binding ranches, settlements, forest lands, and recreational destinations. Hulett appears to the north, associated with the approach to the Bear Lodge country and the cultural geography surrounding Devils Tower nearby, though the map’s focus remains on Sundance and its immediate region. The road system shown in 1979 reflects a moment when rural mobility, tourism, extractive economies, and public land access all depended on careful mapping of routes through complex terrain.

As a historical document, this map offers a valuable snapshot of northeastern Wyoming at a specific late-twentieth-century moment. Its symbols for wooded areas, lakes, rivers, highways, and relief preserve the patterns of land use and settlement before subsequent decades of development, environmental change, and shifting resource priorities. The Sundance region has long stood at a crossroads of plains, mountains, Indigenous histories, ranching, mining, forestry, and travel to the Black Hills, and this USGS map quietly records that layered geography. Its beauty lies in its precision: every contour and creek line contributes to a larger portrait of place, revealing how topography governs routes, settlement, water, and memory in the American West.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Sundance, Wyoming
• Crook County, Wyoming
• Bear Lodge
• Black Hills
• Medicine Bow Mountains
• Little Bear Creek
• Sundance Creek
• Hulett, Wyoming
• Keyhole Reservoir
• Red Canyon
• Various labeled highways and roads, including:
• U.S. Route 14
• Wyoming Highway 585
• Numerous lakes and rivers
• Forested areas marked as “Wooded”
• Ridges, hills, and other topographical features

Historical context & cartographic details

• Published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
• Created in 1979, with a 1979 imprint
• Historical 1:100,000 scale topographical map of Sundance, Wyoming and the surrounding area
• The USGS is known for comprehensive geological surveys and topographical mapping across the United States
• Uses contour lines to show elevation and terrain
• Includes symbols for water features such as rivers and lakes
• Uses varied shading and standard topographical cartographic conventions
• Shows the hydrology of the region with blue lines and water-feature markings
• Provides a historical snapshot of the Sundance area’s landscape and development in 1979
• Useful for understanding changes in land use, population patterns, urban development, and environmental conditions over time

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 36x24in (90x60cm) 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.