Loading map...

1931 Map of Lokern

Name: 1931 Topographic Map of Lokern
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1931
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1931

About this map

Numerous Indian Burial Mounds are documented across this landscape, concentrated along the complex waterways that once drained the southern San Joaquin Valley. Surveyed during the governorship of James Rolph, Jr., the map reveals a highly engineered agricultural frontier defined by the West Side Canal and East Side Canal. These irrigation works parallel the ancient course of the Buena Vista Slough, which serves as the primary Main Drainage for the region.

Settlement is sparse, anchored by the tiny junction at Lokern where the Southern Pacific railroad meets the Mc Kitterick Bakersfield Highway. To the east, the transition from arid terrain to irrigated field is marked by Corn Camp and the isolated Dover Pump, illustrating the intensive effort to reclaim this land for farming. The presence of School House Road suggests a nascent community infrastructure even in this remote pocket of Kern County.