Screen capture of 1892 map of Dallas. To zoom in, you have to visit the seller’s site, tedsvintagemaps.com, and you can really get a good look at each spot and every word on the thing when you do.

I wonder what the creators of the original would think if they could see us now. What with the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge and the Omni Hotel—all lit up in pinks and blues and other hues for Pride Month—or our identifying golf ball building (as my kid called it) Reunion Tower … Oak Cliff as part of our city rather than “sister city” (as it is named on the image).

At an outfit called Ted’s Vintage Maps the super high resolution and digitally restored map goes for about $25-$60 (unframed, based on size).

The sketch is credited to Paul Giraud and it shows “projected improvements to the [Trinity] River and Navigation”

Close observation shows an future island that never came to fruition. (No, I doubt that’s how the band came up with its name).

Giraud’s map can be purchased elsewhere — Amazon, various Etsy shops and so forth. But this is most intricate and clean one I’ve seen. Its extracted and enhanced sketches of buildings of the era could easily send one down the rabbit hole from whence I have just emerged. There’s the Oak Cliff College for Young Ladies, the old courthouse, the Munger Improved Cotton Machine Company at Dallas, The Galveston News AH Belo & Co. (Breaks screeching—huh?)

I admittedly just learned this — the Galveston News was Texas’ oldest paper, founded in 1842, and when Alfred H. Belo bought the publication, he sent staff to establish the satellite Dallas Morning News. Let’s just say there are too many things in this map to tweak out on. So I will leave the rest to you for now: