Map of Laconia, New Hampshire, 1987 by USGS – Lake Winnipesaukee, Gilford & Weirs Beach

Published in 1987 using survey data from the same year, “Laconia” is a provisional 1:24,000 topographical map by the United States Geological Survey, capturing a finely observed portrait of New Hampshire’s Lakes Region at a late twentieth-century moment. Centered on Laconia and its surrounding communities, the map records the meeting of town, water, and upland terrain with the disciplined clarity for which USGS quadrangles are renowned. Lake Winnipesaukee dominates the geography, its bays and islands shaping roads, settlements, and recreation corridors. The provisional designation gives the map particular documentary interest, reflecting an official cartographic snapshot produced for practical use while still preserving the landscape’s historical texture.

The US Geological Survey brought to this map more than a century of federal mapping expertise. Established in 1879, the USGS became the authoritative scientific institution for charting the nation’s landforms, waters, minerals, and hazards, and its topographic series remains one of the great cartographic achievements of modern America. In “Laconia,” that institutional precision is visible in every contour, shoreline, road classification, and place name. The map is not merely a guide to location, but a measured interpretation of terrain: a way of understanding how hills descend into valleys, how communities cluster along transport routes, and how lakes and mountains define daily life in central New Hampshire.

The map’s visual language is classic USGS topography: contour lines articulate elevation changes across the Belknap highlands, while blue tints distinguish Lake Winnipesaukee, Paugus Bay, Opechee Bay, and Lake Winona with crisp hydrological clarity. Around Laconia, Gilford, Meredith, and Belmont, the landscape shifts between settled corridors, wooded slopes, open water, and recreation lands. Routes such as US Route 3, NH Route 106, and NH Route 11 trace the connective tissue of the region, linking lakeside villages, beaches, mountain roads, and civic infrastructure. Laconia Municipal Airport appears as part of this modern landscape, balancing the enduring natural drama of the Lakes Region with the practical patterns of late twentieth-century development.

This is a map of celebrated New Hampshire scenery, where the shorelines of Lake Winnipesaukee meet the rising forms of Belknap Mountain, Gunstock Mountain, Mount Major, Little Bald Peak, and Bell Hill. Rattlesnake Island sits within the great lake, while Weirs Beach and Boundary Beaches evoke the area’s long association with summer travel, boating, and resort culture. Public trails and state park lands suggest a landscape designed not only to be inhabited, but explored. The contours around the mountains make visible the recreational geography of the region, from ski slopes and lookout summits to wooded ridgelines overlooking broad inland waters.

As a 1987 cartographic record, “Laconia” also preserves a moment before many later changes in development, tourism infrastructure, environmental management, and suburban expansion reshaped portions of the Lakes Region. Its value lies in that precise temporal character: the map shows roads, settlements, water features, and public lands as surveyed in a specific year, allowing comparison with both earlier rural patterns and the contemporary landscape. Laconia, Gilford, Meredith, and Belmont appear within a region at once historic and dynamic, defined by lake commerce, seasonal recreation, mountain recreation, and local industry. The result is a richly informative map of place, memory, and measured terrain.

Cities, towns and places on this map

• Laconia
• Gilford
• Meredith
• Belmont
• Lake Winnipesaukee
• Paugus Bay
• Opechee Bay
• Lake Winona
• Belknap Mountain
• Gunstock Mountain
• Mount Major
• Rattlesnake Island
• Little Bald Peak
• Boundary Beaches
• Bell Hill
• Weirs Beach
• Laconia Municipal Airport
• US Route 3
• NH Route 106
• NH Route 11
• Lakes Region
• State parks
• Public trails

Historical context & cartographic details

• Created by the US Geological Survey using survey data from 1987 and published in 1987.
• A provisional 1:24,000 topographical map.
• Made by the US Geological Survey, a government agency known for scientific research and mapping of the United States.
• Uses standard topographic relief techniques, with contour lines showing elevation changes.
• Water bodies are represented in varying shades of blue.
• Shows varied terrain around Laconia, including hills, lakes, and valleys.
• The 1987 survey data provides a historical snapshot of the area before later development changes, including possible urban expansion or environmental alterations.

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