Old Map of Kanab, Utah, 1957 by USGS – Kanab Creek, Colorado River & Highway 89

Titled simply “Kanab,” this US Geological Survey topographical map was published in 1960 using survey data collected in 1957, capturing southern Utah at a moment when its remote canyon country was becoming increasingly legible to motorists, scientists, and visitors. Drawn at the classic 1:62,500 scale, it presents Kanab and its surrounding terrain with the precision and restraint of mid-century federal cartography. The town appears as a small but important settlement set among ridges, washes, valleys, and uplands, its position made more significant by Utah Highway 89, the vital route threading through this dramatic borderland region. The map records not only a place, but a transitional landscape: rural, rugged, and still deeply shaped by geology, watercourses, and access routes.

The US Geological Survey brought to this map nearly eight decades of institutional expertise. Founded in 1879, the USGS became the nation’s principal authority for mapping landforms, mineral resources, hydrology, and geological structure, producing maps that served engineers, land managers, military planners, conservationists, and travelers alike. Its topographic sheets are prized for their combination of scientific accuracy and understated beauty: contour lines, hydrographic features, roads, settlements, and vegetation are organized into a coherent visual system. In the Kanab sheet, that disciplined method transforms a complex region of cliffs, drainages, and open country into an intelligible landscape. The result is both a technical document and a historical artifact from an era when federal mapping underpinned America’s expanding understanding of the West.

Kanab itself occupies a strategically beautiful setting near Kanab Creek, amid the broken terrain of southern Utah’s canyonlands. The map’s contour lines give form to the surrounding hills, valleys, and mountain slopes, revealing the folds and erosional patterns that define this part of the Colorado Plateau. Watercourses such as Kanab Creek are especially significant in such an arid environment, marking corridors of settlement, vegetation, and travel through otherwise dry terrain. The broader drainage context ultimately connects this country to the Colorado River system, one of the great sculpting forces of the American Southwest. Unnamed valleys, peaks, trails, roads, forested patches, and scattered water features together evoke a landscape where human movement was closely governed by topography.

The region shown here is also historically notable as a gateway landscape. Kanab became known as a base for travelers heading toward some of the most celebrated scenery in North America, including Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, as well as the wider canyon country later associated with the Grand Staircase-Escalante conservation area. In the mid-twentieth century, this was a place where ranching, road building, tourism, and public-land management increasingly intersected. Kanab also gained fame as a filming location for Westerns, earning the nickname “Little Hollywood” for its cinematic red-rock surroundings. Against that cultural backdrop, the map records the practical geography behind the romance: the roads, drainages, grades, and settlements that made the landscape accessible.

Cartographically, the map has the distinctive clarity of USGS work from the period, with measured contouring and a restrained color palette that uses greens to distinguish vegetation and terrain character. Those shades soften the scientific rigor of the sheet, giving visual depth to forested areas and uplands while preserving the crisp legibility of roads, streams, and relief. The contour intervals translate elevation into rhythm, allowing the viewer to read slopes, escarpments, basins, and ridgelines almost as if walking the ground. Since the 1957 survey, this region has seen major shifts in conservation policy, tourism infrastructure, and land-use priorities. The map therefore stands as a precise mid-century record of Kanab before later waves of environmental protection and recreational development reshaped its story.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Kanab
• Colorado River
• Kanab Creek
• Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
• Various unnamed valleys and peaks
• Utah Highway 89
• Unnamed trails and roads
• Nearby mountain ranges and hills
• Local forests and water bodies
• Areas of marked geological interest

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey, this historical topographical map shows Kanab, Utah and the surrounding area at a scale of 1:62,500.
• The map data was collected in 1957 and published with a 1960 imprint.
• The US Geological Survey is a U.S. government scientific agency known for mapping and studying the nation’s natural resources.
• USGS mapping has played an important role in providing reliable geological and geographical data for scientific, environmental, and land-management work.
• Kanab is known as a gateway to nearby national parks and scenic landscapes, including Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.
• The map uses a mid-20th-century topographical style, with a distinctive color palette and shades of green to show vegetation and terrain variation.
• Detailed contour lines indicate elevation changes across valleys, hills, mountains, and other landforms.
• Since publication, the region has seen changes in land use, conservation, tourism, and environmental protection.

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.