1953 Map of Clarksville

About this map

The South Fork American River corridor and the rising waters of Folsom Lake dominate this mid-century landscape on the border of El Dorado and Sacramento counties. The 1953 survey, later updated with 1973 revisions, documents a region defined by hydraulic history and gold-era transitions. Evidence of industrial work remains in the form of a dredge near Blue Ravine and several tailings piles, while the Mormon Island Dam marks the engineered change to the valley's drainage. Further south, the Southern Pacific railroad passes through White Rock, and the small settlement of Clarksville sits at the junction of local creeks and roads. Local education and infrastructure are noted at the Live Oak Sch (Aban'd) and the siphon and ditch systems that once moved water across these foothills toward the valley below.