The map was created by manually interpolating points for the contour line between various data points that were overlaid on the map and then hidden when the final map was produced. For some points, I eyeballed it when, for example, the contour point was about halfway between the points. At other times I used a calculator and ruler to figure out a proportional close approximation.
The contours were drawn in CS4 using the Pen tool then smoothed out using the smooth tool which really was the workhorse tool in making the map because it allowed me to get nicely-smoothed continuous contour lines. So the process was Pen tool - click-a-point, click-a-point then Smooth tool - smooth the curve, smooth the curve, smooth the curve, until the contour looked like the end result. Actually the process was pretty fun.
Finally, the question of whether to fill in the space between the contours came up. I looked at various labor intensive ways of doing so, even going so far as to color the first two contours in the upper right part of the map. However, I did not like the way they looked compared to how the map looks without the shading which allowed me to concentrate the effect of figure ground by using a gray fill to frame the state map. When I darkened that fill slightly, I could really see the contour lines stand out. My big concern was what to do with the empty space but as solutions I shortened up the bottom white area below the neatline and then placed my legend info in the triangular area in the Northeast quadrant of the map. In the end I am quite satisfied with the map.
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