1953 Map of Hemet

About this map

The agricultural and ranching landscape of the San Jacinto Valley is captured here in the mid-1950s, a period of transition before rapid suburban expansion. The city of Hemet serves as the primary hub, surrounded by a grid of orchards and local settlements such as Valle Vista. To the south, the terrain rises sharply into the Santa Rosa Hills, where the map reveals a more traditional ranching economy represented by Mission Ranch and the small siding at Johnston. These features reflect a moment when the region's economy was still deeply tied to the land and its citrus groves, with the irrigation patterns and mountain canyons dictating the limits of settlement. The survey work, oversaw by State Engineer A. D. Edmonston, provides a precise record of these homesteads and infrastructure at the edge of the wilderness.