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1904 Map of Southern California Sheet No. 2

Name: 1904 Topographic Map of Southern California Sheet No. 2
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1904
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1904

About this map

San Diego and its surrounding back country appear here in the early twentieth century, showing a landscape defined by expansive Spanish land grants and nascent coastal rail lines. The Southern California R.R. skirts the coastline from San Juan Capistrano through Oceanside and Carlsbad, connecting these seaside towns to the growing urban center at San Diego. Inland, the map documents numerous sovereign tribal lands such as the Pala Indian Res. and Capitan Grande Indian Res., alongside massive ranchos like Santa Margarita y Las Flores and Monserate.

The transition from the coastal plains to the interior peaks is marked by settlements like Escondido and the mining-district atmosphere of Julian. Waterways such as the San Luis Rey River and San Diego River provide the vital corridors through this complex topography of mesas and canyons. This compilation by A.F. Hassan from various topographic sheets provides an unusually broad view of San Diego County before the massive infrastructure projects of the later twentieth century altered the drainage and development patterns of the South Coast.