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1940 Map of Quien Sabe

Name: 1940 Topographic Map of Quien Sabe
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1945
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1945

About this map

The Panoche De San Luis Gonzaga and Real De Las Aguilas land grants define this landscape at the junction of Merced, San Benito, and Santa Clara counties. In the early 1940s, this area was a rugged network of ridges and canyons, where ranching and mining were the primary drivers of settlement. The Stayton Mine sits high in the northern peaks, while the Quien Sabe School and Buena Vista Ranch anchor the lower Quien Sabe Valley.

Water sources like Quien Sabe Creek and Santa Ana Creek carve through the terrain, flanked by numerous named peaks including Mariposa Pk, Antimony Pk, and Henrietta Pk. This tactical survey reveals a moment before modernization, when travel through the region relied on passes like Frenchs Pass and roads connecting isolated flats such as Dairy Flat to the larger valleys. The map provides a detailed view of the early California ranching economy and the difficult topography that isolated these mountain communities.