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1952 Map of Ryan

Name: 1952 Topographic Map of Ryan
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1958
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1958

About this map

Ryan and the surrounding mining country of the Funeral Mountains are documented here in detail during the early 1950s. The landscape is defined by the heavy footprint of early 20th-century industrial extraction, specifically noted through the corridors of the Death Valley Railroad and the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, both already dismantled by this time. These lines once served the mining operations at the Inyo Mine and Widow Mine, connecting the isolated desert interior to the outside world.

Evidence of short-lived desert boomtowns appears at the Scranton (Site) and Greenwater, while the topography of Death Valley and the Greenwater Range dominates the western and southern reaches. Small but vital water sources like Navel Spring and Lemonade Spring dot the arid terrain. The map also records the institutional boundary of Death Valley National Monument and the state line between California and Nevada, cutting through the Amargosa Desert where the Amargosa River flows.