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1957 Map of Plaster City

Name: 1957 Topographic Map of Plaster City
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1961
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1961

About this map

Industrial gypsum mining and military testing define this arid expanse of the Yuha Desert during the mid-1950s. The settlement of Plaster City serves as a hub for the local economy, dominated by the large Gypsum Plant and supported by the Mining Railroad stretching north toward Fish Creek Mountains. To the east, the landscape transitions into a heavy military footprint within the Naval Reservation, featuring a Parachute Testing Unit, an Observation Tower, and designated Target Areas.

Evidence of earlier transportation persists through the Old Overland Stage Route, which winds across the desert floor near the southern edge of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. In the southeast corner, the desert gives way to irrigated agriculture near Dixieland, where a network of infrastructure including the Westside Main Canal, the Dixie Drain, and the poetically named Forget-Me-Not Drain manages water flow across the Imperial Valley floor.