Maps

Royce Map of Indian Cessations

The Royce series of maps defining the various land cessions helps us understand just how amorphous the Blountsville area was in terms of tribal ownership.

I've searched extensively for a treaty definition of the diagonal straight line that demarcates the Cherokee cessations from the Creek. So far I've found nothing and I think it means that Royce chose the arbitrary straight line because he couldn't very well cartographically map the fuzzyness that was the boundaries between the Cherokee and Creek holdings.

1976 Alabama Highway Department Map of Historic Roads

University of North Alabama Library

Conceptually this map is extremely helpful to differentiate the various early paths in Alabama. For identifying the actual paths of the old roads, it is, obviously, less helpful.

From a historic perspective, its interesting to see what's not here....namely the path that connected Blountsville with Black Warrior Town.

Melish 1819

Auburn University Library

Perhaps my favorite map....for thousands of years, determining latitude (north-south direction) was a relatively simply matter. But determining longitude was crazy hard because it requires knowing the precise time. John Melish was a major cartographer of the 1810s and his maps show great accuracy from south to north. His accuracy east to west is interesting.