Published in 1983 from survey data gathered that same year, the US Geological Survey’s “Bellevue South” captures a transformative moment on the eastern shore of Lake Washington’s urbanizing hinterland. At 1:25,000 scale, the map offers a finely observed topographical portrait of Bellevue, Newcastle, Houghton, and the Lake Sammamish corridor just as the Eastside was accelerating from suburban landscape into one of the Pacific Northwest’s most dynamic metropolitan regions. Its crisp USGS symbology—blue lakes and streams, brown contour lines, green wooded areas, and clearly marked roads—creates a richly legible view of terrain, settlement, and infrastructure. The result is both a practical geographic document and a fascinating historical record of place at the dawn of the modern tech-era Eastside.

Lake Sammamish dominates the eastern portion of the map, its elongated blue form anchoring the surrounding hills, neighborhoods, parks, and wooded margins. The shoreline reveals a landscape still shaped by a mixture of recreation, residence, and open space, with parks and green belts punctuating the lakefront. Around the water, contour lines trace the subtle but important rises and valleys that define this part of King County, showing how settlement threaded itself between ridges, slopes, and lowlands. These topographic details are especially evocative in the Newcastle and Bellevue highlands, where elevation changes create a complex terrain of wooded ravines, residential streets, and viewpoints overlooking both Lake Sammamish and the broader metropolitan basin.

The map is particularly compelling for its depiction of Bellevue before its full emergence as a dense commercial center. In the early 1980s, Bellevue was already an important suburban city, yet its street pattern and land-use footprint still retained traces of a more spacious, wooded, and residential character. Houghton appears to the northwestern side of the sheet, tying the map into the broader Eastside geography between Bellevue and Kirkland, while Newcastle—long associated with coal mining and forested uplands—occupies the southern landscape. Together, these names evoke layers of regional history: indigenous homelands, logging and mining frontiers, postwar suburbs, and the later rise of high-technology corridors that would dramatically reshape the area.

Infrastructure is one of the map’s most historically revealing elements. Interstate 90 cuts across the scene as a major east–west artery, linking Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue, and the communities beyond Lake Sammamish. Local roads, neighborhood grids, and curving suburban streets are rendered with the practical precision characteristic of USGS cartography, making visible the transportation framework that guided subsequent growth. The map records a stage before later development filled in many wooded tracts and expanded commercial districts, allowing today’s viewer to compare a rapidly evolving landscape with its earlier configuration. For collectors interested in urban change, “Bellevue South” offers an unusually clear snapshot of how mobility, terrain, and settlement converged in the Eastside’s modern expansion.

As a USGS topographical map, “Bellevue South” belongs to a cartographic tradition devoted to accuracy, clarity, and the systematic description of the American landscape. Its vibrant yet disciplined palette is more than decorative: blue water, green vegetation, brown relief, and black and red cultural features together form a visual language instantly recognizable to hikers, planners, engineers, and historians. The contouring is especially valuable, revealing the physical structure beneath modern development—the hills around Newcastle, the lake basin of Sammamish, and the valleys that shaped road alignments and neighborhood growth. Elegant in its restraint and rich in geographic information, this map preserves the Eastside at a pivotal moment between wooded suburbia and metropolitan transformation.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Lake: Lake Sammamish
• Cities and communities: Bellevue, Newcastle, Houghton
• Neighborhoods: Residential neighborhoods within Bellevue and Houghton, including Newcastle and parts of the Seattle-area suburbs
• Roads: Interstate 90 and several local roads
• Parks: Parks along the shore of Lake Sammamish
• Forests and wooded areas: Tree-covered areas around the edges of urban development
• Geographic features: Hills, valleys, and other natural landmarks surrounding Lake Sammamish

Historical context & cartographic details

• Map name: Bellevue South
• Publisher: US Geological Survey (USGS)
• Date: Produced using survey data from 1983 and published in 1983
• Scale: 1:25,000 topographical map
• Historical context: Shows the geographical and infrastructural layout of Bellevue, Newcastle, Lake Sammamish, and surrounding areas during the early 1980s
• Historical significance: Offers a snapshot of Bellevue and nearby communities before later changes caused by urbanization and land development
• Cartographic style: Uses a vibrant USGS color palette, with water bodies shown in blue and elevation represented by contour lines in brown and green
• Map features: Roads, urban areas, wooded areas, and other landscape details are marked with standard topographic symbology
• Topographic detail: Includes elevation contours showing hills, valleys, and varied terrain around Lake Sammamish

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 18x24in (45x60cm) 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.