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1964 Map of Sonora

Name: 1964 Topographic Map of Sonora
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1965
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1965

About this map

Ray and Sonora anchor the western edge of this mid-1960s landscape, illustrating the industrial footprint of copper mining at the base of the Dripping Spring Mountains. The massive Ray Mine and its accompanying infrastructure, including a Railroad, substations, and a cemetery, reveal the scale of local extraction. The terrain is deeply cut by drainage systems like Mineral Creek and Dripping Spring Wash, which are fed by numerous named water sources such as Laguna Spring and Cottonwood Spring.

Remote livestock operations including Slash S Ranch and Troy Ranch sit isolated among high desert peaks like Scott Mtn and Tiger Mtn. Smaller historical mining operations are scattered across the quadrangle, notably the Alice Mine and Buckeye Mine in the south, and the Calumet Mine near Jimmies Luck Gulch. This survey documents a critical period of transition where large-scale modern mining and traditional ranching coexisted in the Pinal County hills.