1940 Map of Calexico

About this map

The city of Calexico serves as the focal point for this 1940 survey of the Imperial Valley borderlands, documented just as the massive irrigation infrastructure of the era was transforming the desert into a productive agricultural hub. Situated directly against the United States Mexico border, the grid-laid streets of the town give way to a dense network of water engineering, dominated by the newly constructed All American Canal. The landscape is organized around these water lifelines, where the Alamo River is flanked by a complex system of named channels including the Central Main Canal and the East Highline Canal.