Old Map of Virginia City, Nevada by USGS, 1967 – Gold Hill, Dayton & Mount Davidson

Titled “Virginia City,” this US Geological Survey topographical map presents one of Nevada’s most storied mining landscapes with the precision and restraint characteristic of late twentieth-century federal cartography. Created from 1967 survey data and published with a 1983 imprint, it captures the Virginia City quadrangle at a moment when the historic Comstock region had long passed its boomtown zenith yet retained the unmistakable imprint of mining, settlement, and rugged Great Basin terrain. At 1:24,000 scale, the map offers an intimate reading of the land: roads, rail alignments, cemeteries, claims, washes, ridges, and settlements are all positioned within a carefully measured framework of contour lines, elevation marks, and shaded relief.

Virginia City itself occupies the heart of the map, a name inseparable from the Comstock Lode and the Nevada Silver Rush of the nineteenth century. Once among the richest mining districts in the world, the town drew prospectors, financiers, engineers, merchants, and laborers into the arid mountains southeast of Reno. Nearby Gold Hill and Silver City recall the same feverish era, when shafts, mills, tunnels, and haulage routes transformed the landscape. The map’s notation of mining claims and historical workings gives the viewer more than geography: it records the lingering skeleton of an industrial frontier, where speculative wealth, technological ambition, and hard physical labor were written directly into the hillsides.

The topography is especially compelling, with Mount Davidson rising above Virginia City and a network of ridges and valleys shaping the human geography below. Contour lines reveal steep slopes, narrow draws, and the complex relief that defined mining operations and settlement patterns in the region. Shanghai Valley, surrounding peaks, intermittent streams, and small bodies of water appear within a dry Nevada landscape where every drainage and pass mattered. Green shading identifies vegetated or forested areas, offering contrast against the open terrain and helping to distinguish ecological zones. The map rewards close study, showing how towns, roads, cemeteries, and mining sites were fitted into a demanding mountain environment.

The inclusion of Gold Hill Cemetery and Virginia City Cemetery adds a poignant historical dimension to the map. These burial grounds are more than landmarks; they are quiet archives of the Comstock’s human story, preserving traces of immigrant communities, mining families, epidemics, accidents, and the harsh realities of boomtown life. Dayton and Washoe City broaden the map’s regional context, linking Virginia City to older routes, water sources, and settlement corridors at the edge of the Carson and Washoe country. Main roads and railways, carefully marked, underscore the importance of transportation in moving ore, machinery, timber, supplies, and people through a landscape defined by both opportunity and isolation.

As a USGS production, the map reflects an institutional tradition devoted to accuracy, standardization, and public utility. The Survey’s topographical maps served engineers, land managers, scientists, hikers, planners, and historians, but they also created a lasting visual record of changing American landscapes. Here, the measured elegance of federal cartography meets the romance and grit of Nevada’s mining past. The result is a map that is simultaneously practical and evocative: a technical document of elevations, routes, and landforms, and a historical portrait of a place where geology shaped destiny. For collectors, “Virginia City” offers a richly layered view of terrain, memory, and the enduring mythology of the American West.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Virginia City
• Gold Hill
• Dayton
• Washoe City
• Silver City
• Shanghai Valley
• Mount Davidson
• Gold Hill Cemetery
• Virginia City Cemetery
• Various unnamed lakes and streams
• Multiple mining claims and historical mining sites
• Main roads and railways marked throughout the area
• Forested areas indicated by green shading
• Contoured peaks and ridges surrounding the valley

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the US Geological Survey as a historical 1:24,000 topographical map of the surrounding Nevada landscape.
• Created using survey data from 1967 and published with a 1983 imprint.
• Features detailed terrain representation with contour lines and shaded relief, typical of USGS topographic mapping.
• Uses green shading to indicate vegetation or forested regions.
• Includes precise contour lines and a defined scale bar, supporting both historical study and navigation.
• Reflects the geographical and historical setting of a Nevada Silver Rush mining region.
• Documents a landscape that may have changed since the 1960s due to development, mining activity, and land-use policies.

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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.