1978 Map of Gosford

About this map

Kern City and the expanding residential outskirts of Bakersfield dominate the northern portion of this 1978 orthophotograph, where planned housing developments contrast sharply with the surrounding agricultural grid. The imagery, produced by the Geological Survey in cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service, documents the transition from high-density urban planning to the large-scale industrial farming operations of the southern San Joaquin Valley. Further south, smaller communities like Gosford, Pumpkin Center, and Old River appear as concentrated hubs amidst a geometric landscape of fields and canals. This visual record captures the precise footprint of Kern County's development during the late 1970s, illustrating the spatial relationship between its growing suburbs and the established rural settlements that defined its earlier agrarian identity.