1922 Map of Charleston School

About this map

Charleston School serves as a central landmark for this rural Merced County landscape, surveyed in 1919 by C.F. Urquhart and W.H. Monahan. The map reveals an intricate network of irrigation and water management essential to the Central Valley's development, dominated by the San Joaquin and Kings River Canal. This massive waterway cuts through the terrain, flanked by numerous smaller irrigation ditches that supported local agriculture. To the southwest, the topography shifts dramatically as the flat valley floor meets the rising foothills, where drainage is defined by Ortigalita Creek and Laguna Seca Creek. The presence of Swamp Road in the northeast suggests the historical marshy conditions that once characterized the basin before extensive canal systems transformed the hydrology of the region.