1910 Map of Headreach

About this map

Staten Island, Bouldin Island, and Roberts Island define this 1910 landscape of the California Delta, where reclaimed lands and winding waterways dictated life at the turn of the century. The map illustrates a complex hydraulic network of natural channels and man-made alterations, such as the Headreach Cut-off, designed to improve navigation along the San Joaquin River. Small landings and settlements like Terminous and Headreach Landing serve as critical transfer points for the era's agricultural economy, where riverboats and barges accessed the interior through a maze of sloughs including Potato Slough, White Slough, and Disappointment Slough. This survey captures the region's geography before later 20th-century levee reinforcements and irrigation projects further altered the course of these intricate waterways, providing a precise look at the early river-and-rail connectivity of the Central Valley.