This was my first reference map ever. There are over 2000 individually formatted and placed labels on this map taking me more than 500 hours to complete. The progression shown below is my favorite because it really shows how I developed my style. 

I love the legend on this map. I am a proponent of good labeling over legends but they are often unavoidable. Because I didn't know what I was doing and had nobody telling me different, I made something up. The amount of positive feedback I recieved from other map makers reaffirmed my design choices. 

And speaking of design choices, this map was the beginning of using non-rectangualr map frames and using negative space as the dividing lines between text. This map began what has become the Tom Turkey style.