This map shows the Connecticut River as it flows through pastoral Montague, Massachusetts. The village of Great Falls (Turners Falls) is nestled in the large bend of the river, with Montague Center, and the famous Bookmill, straddling the Sawmill River just below the center of the map. The Millers Rivers, with its storied Oxbow, flows in from the East. The ~16,000 year old Montague Delta, underlying the Montague Plains, is the bright triangle at the center of the map, bordered on the southeast by Green Pond and Lake Pleasant. The delicate wash-like structures bordering the river evidence its meanders through the hilltowns since the draining of Glacial Lake Hitchcock and retreat of continental glaciers from the area ~15,600 years ago marking the end of the last ice age.

I was inspired to make this map after seeing Daniel Coe's work (www.kartopics.com) portraying the Williamette River in Oregon. This cartographic style is used with his permission. This map was made using GIS software and the detailed elevation data derived from LiDAR imagery, collected by the U.S. Geological Survey and MassGIS.

The map is primarily an elevation map: The river is white, with higher elevations at progressively darker shades of blue, with everything ~180 feet above the surface of the river masked out in white.