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1956 Map of San Pedro Ranch

Name: 1956 Topographic Map of San Pedro Ranch
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1957
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1957

About this map

San Pedro Ranch anchors this portion of Kenedy County, where life and livestock depended entirely on a network of water infrastructure across an arid landscape. The terrain is dominated by vast fields of Shifting Sand Dunes, some reaching elevations of seventy-four feet, which dictates the layout of the cattle industry here. The map reveals the critical importance of groundwater, with dozens of named water sources scattered across the dunes, from the Potrero No 1 Artesian Well to the San Francisco Windmill.

Cattle ranching patterns are clearly visible through the extensive network of labels marked simply as Fence, which delineate the massive grazing territories of South Texas. These boundaries connect remote outposts like the Piedra Trap Windmill and the Agua Dulce Artesian Well, illustrating the sheer scale of the ranching operations in the mid-1950s. The concentration of wells such as the Santa Cruz Artesian Well and Trampa Seca Artesian Well among the shifting sands highlights the persistent engineering required to sustain agriculture in this environment.