1934 Map of Los Viejos Hills

About this map

The Kettleman Hills dominate this portion of Kings County, revealing a landscape defined by industrial and agricultural transition during the early 1930s. The topographic data, surveyed just years after significant oil discoveries in the region, focuses on the Middle Dome and the complex network of drainage arroyos like Arroyo del Paso and Arroyo Culebrino that carve through the hills. Small settlements and staging points such as Los Medanos, El Collado, and La Esquadilla appear as quiet clusters along the transport corridors of the Hanford Road and Paso Robles Highway. The intricate contouring illustrates the transition from the steep ridges of Bullwheel Ridge and Broken Hill down to the broad, flat expanse of the La Rambla plain, where the arid geography meets the developing infrastructure of the San Joaquin Valley.