1971 Map of Mesa

About this map

Mesa appears as a dense grid of residential and commercial development during the early 1970s, bounded by the agricultural fields of Maricopa County. This orthophotomosaic, created from aerial photography, provides a stark visual record of the transition between the urbanized core and the surrounding geometric farmland. The northern edge of the map is defined by the Salt River, showing the braided nature of its channel against the desert landscape. The high-contrast imagery highlights the irrigation patterns and expanding neighborhood footprints that characterized this period of rapid Arizona growth. For researchers, the map serves as a clear spatial inventory of the city's street layout and the precise extent of the built environment just before further suburban expansion modified the outlying rural plots.