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1956 Map of Mendenhall Springs

Name: 1956 Topographic Map of Mendenhall Springs
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1957
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1957

About this map

Mendenhall Springs is the focal point of this 1956 mid-century survey of the Alameda County interior. The landscape is defined by the heavy infrastructure of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, which cuts through the high ridges to transport water from the Sierra Nevada toward the Bay Area. The map details a complex system of drainage and relief, with Arroyo Mocho and Arroyo Valle carving deep paths through the high country.

Remote upland locations like Shafer Flat and Rose Flat suggest small agricultural or grazing pockets amid the steep slopes of Crane Ridge and Cedar Mountain. Water remains the central theme of the terrain, visible in the numerous small reservoirs and spring sites such as Mud Springs and Devils Hole. A single shaft on the northern slopes of Williams Ridge points toward the era's mining activity in these isolated canyon reaches.