1918 Map of Powell Slough

About this map

The Sacramento River defines the eastern boundary of this 1918 survey, where the town of Colusa sits at a critical bend in the waterway. This landscape is a complex network of drainage and water management, dominated by the broad Colusa Basin and the long, winding Powell Slough. The infrastructure of early twentieth-century agriculture is clearly visible, specifically the Colusa and Lake Irrigation Company Canal and the Old Davis Levee south of town. These features reflect the transition of the Sacramento Valley into a highly engineered agricultural hub, where sloughs like Hopkins Slough were integrated into a wider system of irrigation and flood control. Local history researchers will find the grid of Colusa and the nearby Cem especially useful for tracking early land ownership and community development in the Jimeno area.