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1998 Map of Fort Ross

Name: 1998 Topographic Map of Fort Ross
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 2002
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 2002

About this map

Fort Ross State Historic Park anchors this coastal landscape, preserving the site of the southernmost Russian colonial outpost in North America. The map details the complex geological and cultural layering of the Sonoma coast, where the San Andreas Fault Rift Zone carves a distinct northwest-southeast valley parallel to the Pacific shore. This tectonic trench influences the drainage patterns of the Gualala River and creates a dramatic separation between the coastal terrace and the interior ridges.

Moving inland from Fort Ross Cove, the terrain ascends through a series of steep ridges including Kings Ridge and Mohrhardt Ridge. Traces of local industry and social history are found in the Laton Mine to the north and the Black Mountain Conservation Camp to the south. The mapping of the Muniz land grant and the Seaview Cem along Seaview Road provides essential points of reference for those researching 19th and 20th-century settlement patterns in this isolated portion of the California coastline.