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1901 Map of Southern California Sheet No. 1

Name: 1901 Topographic Map of Southern California Sheet No. 1
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1905
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1905

About this map

The Los Angeles basin and its surrounding mountain ranges appear here at a pivotal moment of early 20th-century development. This wide-reaching survey by J.E. Rockhold illustrates the complex network of the Southern Pacific R.R. and Santa Fe R.R. lines that connected burgeoning citrus towns like Orange and Redlands to the coast. The map clearly delineates the massive early land management blocks including the San Gabriel Timber Land Reserve and the San Jacinto Forest Reserve, which stood as wild barriers between the developing coastal plain and the inland Mohave Desert.

Tracing the path of the Santa Ana River from the San Bernardino Mountains down to the Pacific Ocean, the map highlights established settlements such as Pomona and Santa Ana alongside more remote outposts like Temecula. Cultural landmarks, including the Morongo Ind. Res. and Gold Mt., provide specific points of interest for genealogists and local historians investigating the early topography of the region before the era of major freeway construction.