1951 Map of Goldstone Lake

About this map

Goldstone Lake and its surrounding desert basins dominate this mid-century landscape in the Mojave Desert. The settlement of Goldstone sits near the namesake dry lakebed, positioned along the San Bernardino Meridian. The terrain is strictly divided by federal boundaries, with large portions of the land falling within the Camp Irwin Military Reservation and a designated Naval Reservation. These administrative lines carve through the Superior Valley and the high peaks of the Quail Mountains and Tiefort Mountains. Transportation is limited to the Camp Irwin Road and several unimproved tracks that connect isolated water sources and survey points across the arid flats. Ephemeral features like McLean Lake and Nelson Lake indicate the specialized drainage patterns of this high-desert environment before the area became more widely known for deep space communications.