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1911 Map of Browns Valley

Name: 1911 Topographic Map of Browns Valley
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1911
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1911

About this map

Browns Valley and the surrounding gold-bearing foothills of Yuba County are documented here during an era of significant hydraulic and dredge mining activity. The Yuba River serves as the central corridor, flowing past Daguerre Pt and the Dam, while early settlements like Hammonton and Marigold suggest the concentrated industrial housing of the period. Transportation across the rolling terrain is defined by historic thoroughfares like the Marysville and Smartsville Road and Wheatland Road, which connected these mining outposts to larger valley centers.

Rural social structures are anchored by the Browns Valley School and Brophy School, providing essential community markers for genealogists tracing early California families. The map also captures vanished waypoints such as Tenmile House and names reflecting the difficult social history of the time, including Nigger. The intricate drainage patterns of Little Dry Creek and Reeds Creek illustrate the natural landscape before it was further altered by twentieth-century water management projects.