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1902 Map of Santa Cruz

Name: 1902 Topographic Map of Santa Cruz
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1902
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1902

About this map

Stanford University and Palo Alto anchor the northeastern landscape of this turn-of-the-century coastal study, where the Southern Pacific R. R. connects early bay-side settlements like Mayfield and Castro. The map transition from the tidal sloughs of the San Francisco Bay to the high ridges of Ben Lomond Mountain and Big Basin, capturing a period before heavy development reached the redwood-forested interior. Along the Pacific edge, isolated coastal outposts like Pescadero and San Gregorio sit between prominent navigation markers like the Pigeon Point lighthouse and Año Nuevo Point.

Southern reaches of the survey highlight the burgeoning rail-to-river economy in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Towns such as Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond, and Felton are shown along the steep drainage of the San Lorenzo River valley, leading down to the coastal terminus at Santa Cruz. This survey documents the network of Spanish land grants, including Corral de Tierra and Miramontes, that still defined property boundaries and settlement patterns across the Peninsula at the end of the 19th century.