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1930 Map of Pond

Name: 1930 Topographic Map of Pond
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1930
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1930

About this map

The San Joaquin Valley landscape south of Delano is defined by the rigid geometry of early 20th-century oil and rail infrastructure. The Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Road cuts a straight north-south line through the territory, anchoring small industrial sidings and settlements. At Petro, a massive cluster of Standard Oil Co Storage Tanks illustrates the scale of the region's petroleum industry during the late 1920s.

Surface water management is evident in the southeastern portion of the map, where the Calloway Canal and the meandering path of Poso Creek provide a stark contrast to the surveyed grid of sections and section lines. Between the small outposts of Pond and Elmo, the map details a terrain organized for extraction and transport, showing the early development of Kern County's agricultural and industrial corridor.