Titled “Amelia City,” this United States Geological Survey topographical map was originally created in 1958 and issued with a 1972 imprint, preserving a measured portrait of Amelia Island at a pivotal moment in Florida’s coastal history. Drawn at the precise 1:24,000 scale, it captures the northeastern edge of the state where the Atlantic Ocean meets a lacework of creeks, marshes, tidal channels, and sandy shorelines. Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, Fort Clinch State Park, Black Mound, and the road networks linking these coastal places appear within a landscape still defined more by water, wetlands, and maritime geography than by dense development. The result is a richly informative view of an island poised between old coastal settlement and the modern pressures of growth.

The map was produced by the United States Geological Survey, an institution whose quadrangle maps became indispensable tools for engineers, planners, naturalists, surveyors, and travelers across the twentieth century. The USGS style is immediately recognizable: restrained, rigorous, and quietly elegant, using a disciplined visual language to translate terrain into readable form. Green denotes wooded or vegetated areas, blue renders the tidal waters and ocean margins, and fine contouring records subtle changes in elevation across an unusually low-lying coastal plain. Survey markers, spot elevations, road classifications, and hydrographic details are annotated with the clarity characteristic of federal topographic mapping. In this sheet, scientific precision serves an almost artistic purpose, revealing the texture of Amelia Island’s land and water systems.

Amelia Island’s topographic character is especially compelling because it is shaped less by dramatic elevation than by the restless interplay of tide, sand, marsh, and channel. The map’s intricate blue waterways trace a coastal environment of creeks, inlets, and wetland margins, where the shoreline appears as a living edge rather than a fixed boundary. Marsh areas spread behind the Atlantic-facing coast, suggesting the ecological complexity that has long defined this barrier island landscape. Subtle contours and elevation points emphasize how slight rises—such as Black Mound and other low features—matter in a terrain where even modest ground can influence settlement, roads, drainage, and vegetation. The map makes visible a delicate coastal system governed by water, weather, and tidal rhythm.

Historically, the map offers a valuable glimpse of Amelia Island before later waves of residential expansion, resort development, and infrastructure transformed much of Florida’s Atlantic coast. Fernandina Beach appears as the principal settlement, while roads, parkland, and open tracts show a quieter spatial pattern than would be familiar today. Fort Clinch State Park anchors the northern end of the island, recalling the area’s military and maritime significance near the entrance to the St. Marys River and the approaches to Jacksonville. The surrounding waterways hint at centuries of navigation, trade, fishing, and coastal defense. As a document of the late 1950s landscape, reissued in the early 1970s, it preserves a transitional moment in the island’s modern history.

The beauty of “Amelia City” lies in the way its technical cartography reveals a poetic coastal geography. Hachures, shading, contours, and color combine to distinguish dry land from marsh, ocean beach from inland watercourse, and surveyed infrastructure from natural form. The Atlantic margin is rendered with particular delicacy, its curves and tidal shapes giving the sheet a sense of motion despite its measured precision. Roads thread through the island, while unnamed marshes and creeks occupy much of the composition, reminding the viewer that this was once a landscape dominated by natural systems rather than subdivision grids. For collectors drawn to Florida, coastal history, or classic USGS design, this map offers an evocative record of Amelia Island’s changing shore.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Amelia Island
• Fernandina Beach
• Fort Clinch State Park
• Black Mound
• Atlantic Ocean
• Various waterways, including rivers, streams, and creeks
• Multiple unnamed marsh areas
• Road networks connecting local areas
• Coastal features and contours along the shore
• Survey markers and elevation points

Historical context & cartographic details

• Produced by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
• Historical 1:24,000 topographical map titled Amelia City.
• Originally created in 1958 and published with a 1972 imprint.
• Uses the typical USGS color scheme, with green for land features and blue for water.
• Includes detailed topographic representation using contours, hachures, and shading.
• Shows the low-lying coastal character of the region, shaped by watercourses and marshlands.
• Reflects coastal geography and land use before significant later urban development.

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.