1961 Map of Milpitas

About this map

Coyote Creek and a network of Mud Slough and Guadalupe Slough define the wetlands at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, where the landscape is dominated by industrial Salt Evaporators. This 1961 record, updated through 1980, captures the rapid urban transformation of the Santa Clara Valley. Residential expansion from Sunnyvale and San Jose presses against large institutional and industrial sites, including the Agnews State Hospital and a sprawling Automobile Assembly Plant near the Nimitz Freeway. The map preserves the footprint of older rail-oriented settlements like Drawbridge and the Warm Springs District, alongside the rising suburban infrastructure of Milpitas. This era marks the transition from a marshy, rural-industrial bayfront to the intensive development of the modern Silicon Valley, as shown by the dense grid of schools like Samuel Ayer High Sch and Russell Jr High Sch.