Old Map of Covington, Louisiana by USGS, 1939 – Abita Springs, Mandeville & Lake Pontchartrain

The 1939 U.S. Geological Survey topographical map entitled “Covington” presents a finely observed portrait of St. Tammany Parish on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. At a scale of 1:62,500, it places Covington at the center of a wider landscape that includes Abita Springs, Mandeville, wooded tracts, wetlands, creeks, roads, railroads, and small settlements. The map captures this corner of southeastern Louisiana before the postwar expansion that would transform the region into a more developed suburban and recreational corridor. Its careful notation of waterways, relief, and transportation routes makes it both an elegant cartographic object and a revealing historical document of the Gulf South in the late 1930s.

Produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, this map reflects the agency’s rigorous tradition of scientific mapping. Founded in 1879, the USGS became the nation’s principal authority for documenting terrain, geology, water systems, and natural resources, creating maps that were indispensable to engineers, planners, landowners, and travelers. The Covington sheet belongs to that long project of making the American landscape legible through exact measurement and standardized symbols. Its contours, drainage patterns, and land-cover distinctions speak to a disciplined cartographic language, while its subject—a humid, lowland Louisiana environment—gives the sheet a character quite different from the mountainous western quadrangles often associated with topographic mapping.

The map’s geography is anchored by the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, one of Louisiana’s defining natural features. Mandeville appears along the lakeside, connected by roads and rail lines to inland communities such as Covington and Abita Springs. The Tammany River, Fish Creek, reservoirs, and nearby wetlands reveal a landscape shaped by water at every scale, from small drainage channels to broad lacustrine horizons. Forested areas and low-lying terrain evoke the piney woods and marsh-fringed environments that made St. Tammany Parish distinctive. The subtle contouring is especially evocative here, where even modest changes in elevation mattered for settlement, drainage, agriculture, and transportation.

The human geography shown on the map is equally compelling. Roads and railroads trace the infrastructure that linked Covington, Abita Springs, and Mandeville to New Orleans and the wider Gulf Coast economy. Abita Springs, long known for its mineral waters and resort associations, appears within a landscape still marked by rural settlement patterns. Mandeville’s lakeside position hints at its historic role as a retreat from the city across Lake Pontchartrain. Military sites, parklands, and named places such as Green Park and State Park add further layers of civic and institutional history. In 1939, these features formed a regional network just before wartime mobilization and later suburban growth reshaped the parish.

Cartographically, the Covington map is distinguished by the restrained beauty of USGS topographic design. Green and brown hues differentiate vegetation, relief, and land character, while contour lines give precision to an otherwise gently undulating terrain. Waterways, roads, railroads, and settlement names are arranged with a clarity that rewards close study, inviting the viewer to move between scientific detail and historical imagination. As a record of Louisiana before major mid-century land-use change, it preserves a valuable snapshot of forests, wetlands, small towns, and transportation corridors at a pivotal moment. It is a refined and evocative map of a region where water, woodland, and community meet.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Covington
• Abita Springs
• Mandeville
• Lake Pontchartrain
• Tammany River
• Fish Creek
• Green Park
• State Park
• Military Sites
• Railroads
• Roads
• Reservoirs
• Forested areas
• Nearby wetlands

Historical context & cartographic details

• Historical 1:62,500 topographical map of part of Louisiana and the surrounding area.
• Dated 1939.
• Produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
• The USGS, founded in 1879, is a scientific agency of the U.S. government known for mapping and studying the natural landscape of the United States.
• Uses green and brown hues to depict elevation, vegetation, and terrain features.
• Includes contour lines to show elevation changes.
• Shows waterways and shaded relief to represent the area’s topography.
• Captures the region before significant urbanization and later changes in land use, conservation, and development.

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