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1969 Map of Ceres

Name: 1969 Topographic Map of Ceres
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1987
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1987

About this map

The Tuolumne River winds through this Central Valley landscape, defining the northern border of a region in rapid transition between agriculture and suburban growth. The city of Ceres sits as the central hub, bisected by the Southern Pacific line and State Route 99, while the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad cuts across the northeast corner near Lakewood Memorial Park. The infrastructure of the late 1960s is on full display, from the Modesto City-County Airport to a dense network of schools such as Modesto Union Academy and John F Kennedy Sch.

A complex irrigation system of laterals, such as Taylor Road and Service Road, underscores the intensive farming that surrounded settlements like Keyes and Yoris Grove. This 1969 survey, updated in the 1980s, uses purple tinting to show the expanding footprints of Modesto and its neighbors, capturing the exact moment when orchards and fields began giving way to housing and landmarks like the Drive-in Theater and County Memorial Hospital.