“Leadville North,” produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, presents the high country around Leadville, Colorado, in the disciplined language of a 1:24,000 topographic quadrangle. Dated 1994 with a 1998 imprint, it captures a late twentieth-century portrait of one of America’s most storied mountain districts, where settlement, mining, forest, and alpine terrain meet at remarkable elevation. Leadville itself appears not merely as a populated place, but as a historic hub set amid ridges, lakes, roads, rail lines, and the headwaters landscape of the Arkansas River. The map’s close scale allows the viewer to read the surrounding land with unusual intimacy, from the sweep of contour lines to the fine network of trails and engineered routes.

The USGS, long regarded as the authoritative cartographer of the American landscape, brought to maps such as this a combination of scientific precision and visual restraint. Its topographic quadrangles were created to serve many worlds at once: geologists studying landforms, planners evaluating development, hikers navigating passes, and historians seeking evidence of how communities occupied the land. Here, standard USGS symbols form a compact visual vocabulary—contours for elevation, blue for water, black and red for built features, green for forested areas—allowing Leadville’s setting to emerge with clarity. The map is both utilitarian and deeply evocative, a measured record of terrain shaped by geology, industry, climate, and human ambition.

Leadville’s topographic character is the great drama of the sheet. The contour lines gather and loosen across the mountainous landscape, revealing steep ridges, high basins, and the pronounced relief typical of Colorado’s central Rockies. Turquoise Lake anchors the western portion of the region with a striking presence, while smaller lakes and ponds punctuate the uplands. The Arkansas River system gives the map a hydrological spine, tracing water through a landscape where snowmelt, elevation, and drainage define both ecology and settlement. Nearby peaks, ridgelines, and forested slopes speak to the ruggedness that made this area both difficult to inhabit and irresistible to prospectors, travelers, and outdoor enthusiasts.

The map also preserves the layered human geography of Leadville and its surroundings. Roads and railroads radiate through the district, connecting the town to mountain passes, industrial sites, recreation areas, and neighboring valleys. Tennessee Pass evokes an important corridor through the Rockies, where transportation history, military training grounds, and alpine travel all intersect. Mines, both historic and active, mark the enduring legacy of the Leadville mining boom, one of the defining episodes in Colorado history. These symbols are small, but they carry considerable weight: each shaft, road, and spur line hints at extraction, speculation, labor, environmental consequence, and the transformation of a remote mountain landscape into a nationally significant mineral district.

As a record of the 1990s, “Leadville North” offers a fascinating historical snapshot of land use and environmental conditions at the close of the twentieth century. The presence of White River National Forest, hiking trails, lakes, forested areas, and mining features reflects a region balanced between conservation, recreation, and an industrial past that had not fully receded. For collectors, the map’s appeal lies in this tension: it is a precise government survey, yet also a portrait of place at a particular moment in time. Leadville’s surroundings may have changed through remediation, development, tourism, and shifting land management priorities, but this quadrangle preserves the contours—literal and historical—of a remarkable Colorado landscape.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Leadville
• Turquoise Lake
• White River National Forest
• Tennessee Pass
• Arkansas River
• Various hiking trails
• Multiple elevation peaks and ridges
• Several lakes and ponds
• Forested areas
• Roads and railroads in and around Leadville
• Mines, historic and active, in the vicinity

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey, or USGS
• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map showing Leadville, Colorado, and surrounding areas
• Dated 1994 with a 1998 imprint
• Provides detailed topographical information about Leadville and its surroundings
• Uses standard USGS topographic symbols, including elevation contour lines, water bodies, and man-made features
• Shows varied elevation through contour lines, reflecting the mountainous terrain of the region
• Reflects land use and environmental conditions of the 1990s in the Leadville area

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.