The “Wickenburg Quadrangle” is a finely detailed United States Geological Survey topographic map of Wickenburg, Arizona, created from 1964 mapping and carrying a 1993 imprint. At the precise 1:24,000 scale, it presents the town and its surrounding desert country with the clarity and restraint that define mid-twentieth-century USGS cartography. Wickenburg appears not merely as a settlement, but as a historic hinge between mining country, ranchland, and the rugged uplands of central Arizona. The map’s subdued palette keeps attention on the land itself: contour lines, drainages, roads, trails, and named features combine to create a measured portrait of a place shaped by aridity, elevation, and human ambition.

Produced by the United States Geological Survey, the map reflects an era when federal topographic mapping sought to document the American landscape with exceptional consistency and precision. USGS quadrangles became indispensable tools for engineers, planners, geologists, land managers, and travelers, and this example shows why. Its contour lines translate the broken terrain around Wickenburg into an elegant graphic language, revealing slopes, ridges, washes, and basins in disciplined intervals. Roads and trails thread through the desert, while ranches and undeveloped tracts suggest a landscape still closely tied to extraction, grazing, and overland movement. The result is both practical and quietly beautiful: a scientific document with the composure of a landscape drawing.

Wickenburg itself occupies a storied place in Arizona history. Founded in the wake of nineteenth-century gold discoveries, the town grew around the nearby Vulture Mine, one of the most important gold producers in the region. The map’s inclusion of Vulture Peak and Vulture Mine evokes that mineral frontier, when prospectors, freighters, and entrepreneurs pushed into the Sonoran and upland deserts in search of fortune. Yet Wickenburg is equally associated with cowboy culture, dude ranches, and the mythology of the American Southwest. On this quadrangle, those histories are grounded in geography: mining sites, routes, desert margins, and surrounding mountains show how settlement followed water, ore, access, and terrain.

The physical character of the Wickenburg area is one of the map’s great subjects. The Wickenburg Mountains and the prominent form of Vulture Peak rise from the surrounding desert, their relief carefully modeled through dense, expressive contouring. Dry washes and intermittent drainages mark the land’s response to sudden desert rains, while the Agua Fria River speaks to the region’s broader hydrological network. The topography suggests a place of long views, exposed rock, and difficult passage, where roads and trails must negotiate ridgelines, valleys, and open desert. Even without embellishment, the map communicates the drama of the Arizona landscape: austere, mineral-rich, sun-baked, and deeply sculpted.

As a 1964 record with a later 1993 imprint, the “Wickenburg Quadrangle” offers a compelling historical snapshot of land use before many subsequent patterns of growth, recreation, and environmental management reshaped parts of central Arizona. Its depiction of ranchland, undeveloped desert, named peaks, mining associations, and local routes preserves a moment when Wickenburg still read strongly as a frontier town embedded in a rugged working landscape. For collectors, historians, and admirers of the Southwest, the map is especially evocative because it joins technical precision with regional character. It captures not only where things were, but how the country itself organized movement, settlement, and memory.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Wickenburg, Arizona
• Wickenburg Mountains
• Vulture Peak
• Vulture Mine
• Agua Fria River
• Various unnamed trails and roads
• Nearby desert areas, including ranches and undeveloped land

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an agency of the U.S. government known for detailed land mapping and surveying.
• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map showing Wickenburg, Arizona, and the surrounding area.
• Dated 1964 and carries a 1993 imprint.
• Wickenburg is known for its rich gold mining history and significant cowboy culture.
• Uses contour lines to depict elevation changes, terrain types, and land use, characteristic of USGS maps.
• Features detailed contours reflecting the mountainous and rugged terrain of the Wickenburg area.
• May reflect land use and physical geography that have since changed, particularly due to urban development and environmental management.
• Features a subdued color palette emphasizing topographical details, a hallmark of USGS topographic maps from this period.

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.