This map of eastern Missouri and western Illinois focuses on the streams and rivers that form the confluence of the Missouri, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers. This is the heart of the Mississippi River watershed. With maps and travel directions on our phones, it may seem silly to make another map. But, highway and Google maps emphasize roads and minimize rivers.. Most rivers are almost imperceptible thin blue lines on these maps. To make our essential fresh water system visible, I created a 24-inch square map using the United States Geological Survey National Map. https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/advanced-viewer/ .
I selected the USGS Hydrocached base map (window icon). I turned on the Transportation Layer and selected Labels and Features from the Layers (stack Icon). I used level 11 magnification and captured a grid of images, “printing “ them to the site and then saving them on my desk top. I imported more than 20 of these maps as layers in Photoshop and matched them to each other creating the large map. I didn’t select the city names, because that made the map too cluttered, instead, I typed and placed selected city names to help viewers find their place on the watershed. You won’t see any town names on the map I have posted here.. I ommited the type layer on this print because even the fewer names distracts from the streams.
