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1904 Map of Ventura

Name: 1904 Topographic Map of Ventura
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1946
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1946

About this map

The coastal shelf and deep canyons of Southern California are documented here just after the turn of the century by topographer A.H. Sylvester. The city of Ventura sits at the mouth of the Ventura River, which serves as a vital corridor leading north through the Santa Ana Valley toward the Ojai Valley. This era shows the Southern Pacific railroad hugging the shoreline past Seacliff and Punta Gorda, providing a narrow transportation link between the rising coastal towns and the interior.

Upstream, the landscape is defined by traditional Spanish land divisions such as Ex Mission San Buenaventura and Canada de San Miguelito. These ranchos and valleys are framed by the Santa Ynez Mountains and Pine Mountains, where remote features like Vickers Hot Springs and the settlement of Matilija mark the limits of early development. The map also captures several "Canada" labels, indicating the deeply carved drainage basins that shaped local settlement patterns and agricultural boundaries.