1948 Map of Cave Mountain

About this map

Camp Irwin Military Reservation dominates the northwestern portion of this Mojave Desert landscape, its boundaries surveyed just as post-war military expansion redefined the region. The map captures a critical transportation corridor where the Union Pacific railroad and the Arrowhead Trail parallel the Mojave River through the narrow gap between the Cady Mountains and the Cave Mountain range. Small railroad-aligned settlements like Midway, Dunn, and Afton serve as isolated outposts in an arid environment defined by the fluctuating levels of East Cronese Lake and West Cronese Lake. The presence of Bitter Spring in the north and the deep cutting of Afton Canyon reveal the geological constraints that dictated travel and settlement patterns in this part of San Bernardino County during the late 1940s.