Colorado has become so packaged and commercialized, it’s hard to remember a time when it stood for the purity of big-ass mountains above all else, but this recently rediscovered map from 1894 puts everything back into perspective. Cartographers say it’s pretty accurate, but I’d say its biggest impact is on the cartography of the mind: You think those mountains impressed the map maker or what?

According to grubstaker.com, the map was found by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Peggy Ellis, who was poking around the Library of Congress on vacation when she stumbled upon it. (I guess that’s what USGS people do on holiday–rummage the national archives.) It was in six sections and has been put back together digitally, with all seams removed and information replaced where creases had erased it.

What’s really radical about it is that it increases the number of documented ghost towns exponentially. Colorado historians and the USGS were surprised to find 1,096 communities, mining camps, and ghost towns displayed–the Colorado Historical Society has only documented 150 and projected there to have been 400 to 500.

Here are a couple snippets of the map at full resolution. You can download the 3912×2750 pixel beast by clicking here. And you can order a printed copy for 20 bucks from grubstaker.com.