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1960 Map of La Costa Valley

Name: 1960 Topographic Map of La Costa Valley
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1994
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1994

About this map

San Antonio Reservoir anchors this landscape in the hills south of Livermore, where the waters of San Antonio Creek are held within the valley of Valle de San Jose. The 1960s era brought significant infrastructure to the region, including the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct and the Vallecitos Nuclear Center in Vallecitos Valley. This survey captures the transition of the land from traditional ranching and water management toward a focus on protected open space and nuclear research.

Mountainous terrain dominates the southern half of the map, defined by the prominent Sunol Ridge, Apperson Ridge, and Wauhab Ridge. These steep slopes provide the backdrop for the Sunol Regional Wilderness and Ohlone Regional Wilderness, which preserve the drainage basins of Welch Creek and Alameda Creek. Near the edge of the foothills, the small settlement of Scotts Corner sits along the road to the Sunol valley, while nearby Gravel Pit operations highlight the local extraction industry during this period.