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1914 Map of Capitola

Name: 1914 Topographic Map of Capitola
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1947
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1947

About this map

The central California coast along Monterey Bay reveals a landscape defined by expansive Spanish land grants and a burgeoning rail-and-river economy in the years before World War I. Prominent rancho boundaries such as Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo and Laguna de las Calabasas dominate the interior, while the coastal strip shows the early development of Capitola and Aptos. The intricate network of sloughs, including Harkins Slough and Watsonville Slough, converges near the mouth of the Pajaro River, illustrating the complex drainage of the fertile valley floor around Watsonville.

Transport is centered on the Southern Pacific and the Pajaro Valley Consolidated RR, which served the shipping needs of inland growers and coastal terminals like Port Watsonville. For the local historian, the map preserves the locations of numerous early educational sites, from the San Andres School near the shore to the Green Valley School in the northern foothills. The transition from Monterey to Santa Cruz County is marked along this tidal landscape, where Moss and Castroville sit among the winding waterways of Elkhorn Slough and Moro Cojo Slough.