This page HOUSES THE 1934 US ARMY MAP  that came out of the US occupation — an exceptionally detailed & sophisticated text that was years in the making and represented the culmination of one of the major projects of the B-2 Intelligence Section.  As Major Hans Schmidt wrote in 1928, "The compilation and gradual building up of a good map should be [the Intelligence Section's] primary and lasting work" (Schmidt memo, 12 Nov. 1928, NA127/43A/4).   So it was. 

     This 1934 US Army map is housed in the Clark Library Map Collection in the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan.  Produced by the Geographic Branch of the US Army's Military Intelligence Division, it is comprised of several overlapping maps of Nicaragua and Honduras, each approximately 3 feet high & 4 feet wide.  Photocopied using the library's large poster-size photocopy machine, the map was sectioned along its grid-lines, with each section measuring 8½ inches square and representing 0.5 degrees longitude & latitude (30 minutes each side).  Years ago I used these sections, more than 50 in all, to create a digitized version of the map, using now-obsolete software MapInfo 2.0 and a desktop digitizing tablet.  This digitized version of the 1934 US Army map has been converted into a zoomable PDF file and is accessible HERE.    (One needs to zoom in around 500% in order to read the smallest lettering.)  This PDF map has both advantages & disadvantages over JPEG maps.  Among the big disadvantages are the tiny lettering (unless zoomed-in to too small a scale), and the inability to crop or edit the image.  One big advantage is that place-names can be searched. 

      To create the maps presented here, 47 base-map sections (0.5° and 2,550 pixels per side)  were digitally modified using Windows Live Photo Gallery and Photoshop CS5 — cleaning up the images, modifying the hues & tones, standardizing their size, and in some cases erasing the latitude-longitude notations made (and bits of scotch tape put) in the corners during the digitization process.  The maps presented below are JPEG versions of CS5 files that are in the process of being modified (place names corrected, additional place-names inserted, partial colorizing, and so on).

     These 47 base-map sections were then stitched together into 16 larger composite maps.  The amount of territory that can be covered — the number of sections that can be combined — is constrained by the size of the digital files.  Each base-map JPEG file takes up about 5.0MB.  Ideally one would create a single map covering all of northern Nicaragua, but the files simply become too big (e.g., 4 sections stitched together becomes 30MB; 6 sections stitched together becomes 50 MB; any more and the file becomes impractically big).

      The table below presents each of these 47 base-map sections.  Below that are 16 larger composite maps, most combining four base-maps, some combining six.   If you don't find the particular composite map you're looking for, feel free to pluck off the ones you want and make your own !

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
A	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	Asang	Tilba-Sang Sang	Waspuk-Kisalaya	Ulwas-Sawa Boom	Cabo Gracias a Dios	A
B	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	DanlÍ-jalapa		RÍo Coco Hondudras	bocay	Musawas	Englesing's Trail	Logtown-Wawa Boom	Puerto Cabezas	B
C	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	YuscarÁn	ApalÍ-el JÍcaro	QuilalÍ	garrobo-chipotÓn	pis pis	tunky	RÍo bambana	rÍo wawa mouth	C
D	Golfo de fonseca	Choluteca	san marcos de colÓn	estelÍ-JINOTega	RÍO pantasma	rÍo tuma	san pedro del norte	el gallo	prinzapolka	(EMPTY)	D
E	cosegÜina	chinandega	el sauce	san isidro-la trinidad	matagalpa-muy muy	matiguÁs	rÍo grande	rÍo kuringwas	laguna de perlas	(EMPTY)	E
F	(EMPTY)	corinto	leÓn	managua	camoapa	juigalpa	rÍo siquÍa	rama	bluefields	(EMPTY)	F
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

The legend for all these maps is thumbnailed here: 

     In what follows, a series of tables offer composites of these maps, presented in a series of tables because some of the map segments overlap and I can't think of a better way to present them, given my technical skills & the software at hand.  It's a bit cumbersome & inelegant, but it works.

     ADVISORY:    These are big files — each of these composite maps is between 20 and 30 MB.

c O M P O S I T E     M A P     C O L L E C T I O N     N O .     1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
A	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)
B	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)			RÍo Coco Hondudras
C	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)					pis pis
D			san marcos de colÓn	estelÍ-JINOTega			san pedro del norte
E			el sauce			matiguÁs	rÍo grande			(EMPTY)
F	(EMPTY)	corinto	leÓn			juigalpa	rÍo siquÍa			(EMPTY)

c O M P O S I T E     M A P     C O L L E C T I O N     N O .     2
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
A	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	Asang	Tilba-Sang Sang	Waspuk-Kisalaya	Ulwas-Sawa Boom	Cabo Gracias a Dios
B	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	DanlÍ-jalapa		RÍo Coco Hondudras			Englesing's Trail	Logtown-Wawa Boom	Puerto Cabezas
C	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)			QuilalÍ			tunky	RÍo bambana	rÍo wawa mouth
D	Golfo de fonseca	Choluteca			RÍO pantasma			el gallo	prinzapolka	(EMPTY)
E	cosegÜina			san isidro-la trinidad	matagalpa-muy muy			rÍo kuringwas	laguna de perlas	(EMPTY)
F	(EMPTY)			managua	camoapa			rama	bluefields	(EMPTY)

c O M P O S I T E     M A P     C O L L E C T I O N     N O .     3
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
A	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	Asang	Tilba-Sang Sang	Waspuk-Kisalaya	Ulwas-Sawa Boom	Cabo Gracias a Dios
B	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	DanlÍ-jalapa		RÍo Coco Hondudras	bocay	Musawas	Englesing's Trail	Logtown-Wawa Boom	Puerto Cabezas
C	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	YuscarÁn	ApalÍ-el JÍcaro	QuilalÍ			tunky	RÍo bambana	rÍo wawa mouth
D	Golfo de fonseca	Choluteca	san marcos de colÓn	estelÍ-JINOTega	RÍO pantasma			el gallo	prinzapolka	(EMPTY)
E	cosegÜina	chinandega	el sauce	san isidro-la trinidad	matagalpa-muy muy	matiguÁs	rÍo grande	rÍo kuringwas	laguna de perlas	(EMPTY)
F	(EMPTY)	corinto	leÓn	managua	camoapa	juigalpa	rÍo siquÍa	rama	bluefields	(EMPTY)

c O M P O S I T E     M A P     C O L L E C T I O N     N O .     4
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
A	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	asang	tilba-Sang Sang	Waspuk-Kisalaya	Ulwas-Sawa Boom	Cabo Gracias a Dios
B	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	DanlÍ-jalapa						Logtown-Wawa Boom	Puerto Cabezas
C	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	YuscarÁn	ApalÍ-el JÍcaro					RÍo bambana	rÍo wawa mouth
D	Golfo de fonseca	Choluteca	san marcos de colÓn	estelÍ-JINOTega	RÍO pantasma	rÍo tuma	san pedro del norte	el gallo	prinzapolka	(EMPTY)
E	cosegÜina	chinandega	el sauce	san isidro-la trinidad	matagalpa-muy muy	matiguÁs	rÍo grande	rÍo kuringwas	laguna de perlas	(EMPTY)
F	(EMPTY)	corinto	leÓn	managua	camoapa	juigalpa	rÍo siquÍa	rama	bluefields	(EMPTY)

c O M P O S I T E     M A P     C O L L E C T I O N     N O .     5
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
A	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	asang	tilba-Sang Sang	Waspuk-Kisalaya	Ulwas-Sawa Boom	Cabo Gracias a Dios
B	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	DanlÍ-jalapa		RÍo Coco Hondudras	bocay	Musawas	Englesing's Trail	Logtown-Wawa Boom	Puerto Cabezas
C	(EMPTY)	(EMPTY)	YuscarÁn	ApalÍ-el JÍcaro			pis pis	tunky	RÍo bambana	rÍo wawa mouth
D	Golfo de fonseca	Choluteca	san marcos de colÓn	estelÍ-JINOTega			san pedro del norte	el gallo	prinzapolka	(EMPTY)
E	cosegÜina	chinandega	el sauce	san isidro-la trinidad	matagalpa-muy muy	matiguÁs	rÍo grande	rÍo kuringwas	laguna de perlas	(EMPTY)
F	(EMPTY)	corinto	leÓn	managua	camoapa	juigalpa	rÍo siquÍa	rama	bluefields	(EMPTY)

     It is noteworthy that Orient Bolívar Juárez, in his recent history of cartography in Nicaragua, Historia de la Geodesia y la Cartografía en Nicaragua (Managua: Ediciones Jano, 2010), pays scant attention to these and similar maps created by the US military during the US occupation.  By 1934 when this map was completed, the cartographic technology used to create it was rapidly becoming obsolete.  Within the decade, aerial photography would dispace the methods used to create this map.  Building this map, the Intelligence Section built on a base of on existing maps (in this case mainly the 1924 Clifford Ham Map and the 1928 Christian Brothers Nicaraguan geography book), compiling & integrating the maps & notes of field commanders, and similar methods.  As "primitive" as these pre-aerial-photography techniques might have been, the US military used them to great effect in Nicaragua to create this remarkably detailed and useful map.