Titled “Pierre,” this United States Geological Survey map presents South Dakota’s capital and its immediate surroundings with the disciplined clarity of mid-1970s American topographic cartography. Created from survey data gathered in 1973 and published in 1976 by the United States Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, it captures Pierre at a revealing moment in its modern development. The city appears not as an isolated point on the prairie, but as part of a broader landscape shaped by river engineering, transportation corridors, civic growth, and the rolling terrain of central South Dakota. At 1:24,000 scale, the map offers an intimate view of streets, structures, watercourses, contours, and rural margins, making it both a practical survey document and a richly layered historical portrait.

Pierre occupies a distinctive position on the Missouri River, one of the great waterways of North America and a defining force in the geography of the northern plains. The map records the river corridor and associated waters of Lake Sharpe, the long reservoir created downstream of Oahe Dam, whose presence transformed local hydrology, recreation, settlement patterns, and riverfront development. Around the city, the mapped landscape opens into the characteristic plains and breaks of central South Dakota, where subtle changes in elevation are carefully articulated through contour lines. These contours give the map its quiet drama, revealing slopes, drainage channels, low ridges, and the shaped edges of river country that might otherwise seem deceptively level.

The USGS topographic style is especially well suited to Pierre’s mixture of civic order and open country. Urban streets and roadways are rendered with precision, tracing the capital’s grid, routes, and built environment, while surrounding rural areas are described through a more delicate language of contours, streams, and landforms. Structures, roads, and natural features coexist within a unified visual system, reflecting the Survey’s mission to document the nation’s terrain for public use, planning, engineering, science, and resource management. The result is a map that balances utility with elegance: every line has purpose, yet together they form a composed image of a city situated between prairie expanses and a monumental river system.

As a historical record, the map invites comparison between Pierre in the early 1970s and the city that followed. Streets, neighborhoods, riverfront zones, transport routes, and peripheral rural lands are captured before later phases of expansion and redevelopment altered the local pattern. Hart Ranch and nearby open areas hint at the wider agricultural and recreational landscape surrounding the capital, while the road network shows the infrastructure that connected Pierre to regional communities and the broader state. For historians, planners, and collectors, such details illuminate the socioeconomic geography of the period: where settlement concentrated, how the city related to the Missouri River, and how the plains around it were being organized for modern use.

The map also belongs to the larger achievement of the United States Geological Survey, whose topographic quadrangles became foundational documents of American landscape knowledge. Since the late nineteenth century, the USGS has mapped terrain, water, minerals, hazards, and human development with a consistency that made its work indispensable to government agencies, engineers, scientists, and citizens. In this Pierre sheet, that institutional precision is applied to a place of unusual symbolic importance: a state capital set within a powerful western river landscape. Its appeal lies not in ornament, but in exactitude—the measured contours, named places, waterways, and roads that together preserve a precise moment in the evolving story of South Dakota’s central plains.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Pierre, South Dakota
• Missouri River
• Lake Sharp
• Hart Ranch
• Various streets and roadways in Pierre
• Nearby rural areas and natural features, including contours and streams

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey, this historical 1:24,000 topographical map shows Pierre in South Dakota and the surrounding area.
• Created using survey data from 1973 and published in 1976.
• Published by the United States Department of the Interior, Geological Survey.
• The USGS has played a crucial role in national mapping and geological studies, providing essential data for natural resource management and environmental planning.
• The map highlights the city of Pierre and its surroundings, detailing the topography of the area and features such as water bodies and structures.
• The style is characteristic of USGS topographic maps, featuring contour lines to represent elevation, with clear demarcations of urban areas and natural features.
• The map illustrates a variety of elevations, river systems, and geographic features typical of the central South Dakota plains.
• Examining changes in land use and development in Pierre since the 1970s can provide insights into urban expansion, ecological changes, and shifts in the socioeconomic landscape.

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.