1941 Map of Folsom

About this map

The American River, also labeled here as the Rio de los Americanos, dominates this early 1940s landscape just before the construction of massive local dams transformed the river valley. The settlement of Folsom and its neighboring State Prison Represa sit at the center of a transition from the agricultural plains of Orangevale and San Juan to the rising foothills of the Sierra Nevada. This map documents a period when the river still flowed through historic gold-rush locations like Mississippi Bar, Nigger Bar, and Sailor Bar before they were altered by mid-century water projects.