Titled “Brookings,” this United States Geological Survey quadrangle presents the city of Brookings, South Dakota, and its surrounding prairie landscape with the disciplined clarity of modern American topographic cartography. Based on original survey data collected in 1964 and issued with a 1982 imprint, the map offers a fascinating layered moment: a mid-twentieth-century portrait preserved through a later federal publication. At 1:24,000 scale, it captures the city and countryside in fine detail, balancing street grids, rail lines, highways, waterways, contour lines, and land-use patterns. The result is both practical and evocative—a precise geographical document of Brookings before later phases of expansion, suburban development, and institutional growth reshaped the area.

Brookings itself occupies the heart of the map, its ordered streets and neighborhoods set within the broader geometry of eastern South Dakota’s agricultural lands. The presence of South Dakota State University is especially significant, anchoring the city not only as a regional center but as an academic and cultural landmark. The map records the relationship between campus, town, roads, railroads, and surrounding fields, revealing how education, transportation, and agriculture shaped the local landscape. U.S. Route 14 and other roadways situate Brookings within wider regional movement, while rail lines recall the infrastructure that helped bind prairie communities to markets, migration routes, and the economic rhythms of the Great Plains.

As a USGS topographic map, “Brookings” is distinguished by its elegant system of contour lines, color coding, and carefully standardized symbols. Subtle elevation changes are translated into a readable terrain model, giving visual form to a landscape that might otherwise seem deceptively level. Water features, open land, vegetated areas, urban development, and transportation corridors are differentiated through the familiar palette of federal cartography. This precision makes the map more than a city plan: it is a measured portrait of landform and land use. The contours, roads, and boundaries together communicate how settlement adapted to drainage, soil, elevation, and access across the prairie environment.

The historical value of the map lies in its depiction of Brookings at a transitional point in the city’s development. The 1964 survey data preserves an era when the city was already an important educational and agricultural hub, yet had not experienced the full extent of later urban growth. Residential districts, commercial areas, agricultural fields, parks, and institutional grounds appear in a pattern that invites comparison with the modern city. For historians, planners, genealogists, and collectors, the map offers evidence of how Brookings’ built environment once related to its rural surroundings. It records not only where features stood, but how a community organized itself in space.

The United States Geological Survey brought to maps like this a distinctive combination of scientific rigor and understated visual beauty. Founded in 1879, the agency became central to mapping the nation’s terrain, resources, watersheds, and settlements, producing quadrangles that remain among the most trusted geographic records of the United States. In “Brookings,” that tradition is visible in every contour, symbol, and line of infrastructure. The map turns a specific South Dakota locality into a richly legible historical landscape, where university grounds, highways, railroads, parks, fields, and waterways coexist within a precise topographic framework. It is a refined cartographic record of place, progress, and prairie geography.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Brookings
• South Dakota State University
• Highways, including U.S. Route 14
• Railroads
• Parks
• Various neighborhoods within Brookings
• Nearby water bodies, including rivers and lakes
• Forested areas
• Agricultural lands and fields
• Contour lines indicating terrain elevation
• Boundaries of different land use, including residential, agricultural, and commercial areas
• Mines, if indicated on the map

Historical context & cartographic details

• Map title: Brookings
• Produced by the United States Geological Survey (USGS)
• Historical 1:24,000-scale topographic map
• Original survey data was collected in 1964
• Published with a 1982 imprint
• Uses color to distinguish urban areas, open land, vegetation, and other landscape features
• Reflects the Brookings area before later phases of significant urban development
• Useful for studying changes in land use, infrastructure, and urban growth since the 1960s
• Typical of USGS topographic mapping, combining practical geographic detail with clear visual design

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.