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1942 Map of Sebastopol

Name: 1942 Topographic Map of Sebastopol
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1942
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1942

About this map

Sebastopol serves as the focal point for this mid-century portrait of western Sonoma County, where the agricultural flats of the Llano de Santa Rosa meet the winding drainages of the coastal hills. The map documents an intricate network of local education and community hubs, featuring rural institutions like Gold Ridge Sch and Pleasant Hill Sch alongside established settlements like Forestville and Graton. Transportation in this era was defined by the Northwestern Pacific RR and the Petaluma and Santa Rosa RR, which connected the inland valleys to the redwood-shaded canyons of the west.

The landscape transitions from the riparian wetlands of the Laguna de Santa Rosa to the towering timber of Joy Woods Redwood Grove and the secluded Bohemian Grove near the Russian River. Towards the coast, the topography opens into the grazing lands of the Canada de Pogolimi and the shoreline of Bodega Bay. Numerous family-named landmarks and small rail stops like Molino and Cunningham illustrate the fine-grained settlement pattern of the California north coast before the post-war shift toward suburbanization.