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1971 Map of Vidal Junction

Name: 1971 Topographic Map of Vidal Junction
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1973
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1973

About this map

Vidal Valley serves as the focal point for this 1971 study, showing a desert landscape defined by major infrastructure and transit corridors. The Vidal Junction (Plant Quarantine Station) marks a critical highway intersection where a Landing Strip and various survey benchmarks denote human activity in an otherwise arid expanse. The most striking engineering feature is the Colorado River Aqueduct, which traverses the terrain via a series of Siphons, moving water across the basin.

Along the southern edge of the map, the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad runs parallel to Vidal Wash, illustrating the region's reliance on established rail and water routes. This survey, based on 1970 aerial photography, documents the precise alignment of these utility and transport systems before later desert development. The density of benchmarks like BM 939 and BM 832 underscores the intensive surveying required to manage these large-scale public works projects.