Maps

Explore digitized maps linked to external archives.

Positions of the Upper and Lower Gold Mines on the South Fork of the American River, California — July 20th , 1848
1848

Positions of the Upper and Lower Gold Mines on the South Fork of the American River, California — July 20th , 1848

Drawn just months after James Marshall’s famous discovery, this is one of the first government maps to locate California’s gold diggings. Ord traces the American River eastward from Sutter’s Fort, marking sawmills, ferries, and the confluences of the North and South forks. Shaded knolls and oak “plains” give way to steeper, red-clay hills where Ord labels “Lower Mines No 3” and “Upper Mines Nos 1 & 8,” the placers that ignited the Gold Rush. Mileage notes show the diggings to be 25 miles and 50 miles from the fort, respectively, and a bold compass rose orients the sheet. The cartography reveals how narrow river terraces and wooded ridges guided early miners and supply trains into the Sierra Nevada foothills. Researchers gain a rare, near-contemporary snapshot of settlement, terrain, and the very first routes to the fabled diggings.

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The Sacramento Valley from the American River to Butte Creek
1849

The Sacramento Valley from the American River to Butte Creek

Drawn in September and October 1849, this Gold-Rush-era map traces the Sacramento, Feather, and Yuba Rivers from Sutter’s Fort north to Butte Creek. Derby marks wagon roads, ferries, rancho boundaries, and several “Indian Rancherias,” capturing settlement patterns just months after the first gold strike. Shaded hachures on the right reveal the abrupt rise of the Sierra Nevada, while lighter contours on the left hint at Coast Range foothills. Notes such as “Plains usually overflowed in winter” and “Large herds of Wild Cattle” document seasonal flooding and wildlife. Sacramento City appears as a nascent street grid at the river confluence, surrounded by undeveloped prairie. This sheet offers an invaluable baseline for studying later levee building, railroad surveys, and agricultural reclamation across Northern California.

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Chart of the Sacramento River from Suisun City to the American River, California
1850

Chart of the Sacramento River from Suisun City to the American River, California

Published in 1850 for Gold Rush navigation, this hydrographic chart follows every meander of the Sacramento River between Suisun Bay and the mouth of the American River. Ringgold’s survey plots depth soundings, sandbars, wooded levees, and anchorages that were vital to steamboat pilots hauling miners and freight upriver. Four detailed insets spotlight the street grids of Sacramento and Boston, the Sacramento Cut, the Middle and East Fork confluence, and Suisun City’s waterfront. Two profile sketches illustrate typical tree lines and riverbank elevations for visual reference on approach. Ranchos, Indian villages, and early landings appear along the banks, offering a snapshot of settlement just before levee building and railroad expansion reshaped the valley. Compass roses, mileage scales, and bottom-type symbols make it a practical guide as well as a rich historical source.

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Route of the Pacific and Atlantic Rail Road between San Francisco & San Jose
1851

Route of the Pacific and Atlantic Rail Road between San Francisco & San Jose

This 1851 survey chart lays out the first proposed rail link down the San Francisco Peninsula, running from the city’s southern edge through San Bruno, San Mateo, Mezesville, Ravenswood, and on to San Jose. A single bold line traces the planned track along the bayshore, skirting tidal marshes while staying below the oak-studded Coast Range foothills shown in shaded hachures. Small grid plans and names mark early settlements and stage stops, many of which later became stations on the modern Caltrain corridor. Creeks, estuaries, and “Tide Marshes” are labeled to highlight drainage challenges facing the railroad’s construction crews. A mileage scale and neat compass arrow aid in gauging distances along the route. The map offers a rare glimpse at mid-nineteenth-century Peninsula topography and settlement just before rail service reshaped travel between San Francisco and the Santa Clara Valley.

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Geological Map of a Part of the State of California Explored in 1853 by Lieut. R. S. Williamson U. S. Top. Engr.
1853

Geological Map of a Part of the State of California Explored in 1853 by Lieut. R. S. Williamson U. S. Top. Engr.

Prepared for the Pacific Railroad Surveys, this hand-colored sheet plots rock formations along Williamson’s proposed rail routes from the Oregon border south to the Tehachapi passes. Eight pastel tints distinguish granites, metamorphic belts, volcanic ridges, serpentine zones, valley sediments, and coastal alluvium, with a keyed legend at lower left. The intended railroad line threads through the Sacramento Valley, skirts the Sierra Nevada foothills, and crosses the Coast Range at strategic gaps marked by sharp hachures. Rivers, lakes, and selected settlements anchor the geography, while dashed lines show reconnaissance paths into the “Great Basin.” By combining topography with bedrock geology, the map illustrates engineering obstacles—hard granites, unstable serpentine, and marshy valley fill—facing any trans-California rail link in the early 1850s.

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A Skeleton Map of the State of California Exhibiting the U.S. Township and Range Lines, and Boundaries of U.S. Land Districts, the County Seats and the Lines of Equal Variation of the Compass
1853

A Skeleton Map of the State of California Exhibiting the U.S. Township and Range Lines, and Boundaries of U.S. Land Districts, the County Seats and the Lines of Equal Variation of the Compass

Issued in the early 1860s, this reference sheet reduces California to a township-and-range grid, shading six federal land districts (I–VI) in pastel blocks. Fine blue and red lines mark every surveyed township, anchored to three principal meridians shown at the top. An explanation at upper right describes how to locate any 36-square-mile township by its meridian base, north–south “range,” and east–west “township” count. County seats, rivers, and the few completed railroad alignments thread lightly across the grid, while a dashed isogonic line tracks magnetic declination across the state. The map’s stark geometry highlights the federal public-land survey system that governed homestead entry, mining claims, and railroad land grants during California’s rapid settlement.

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An Improved Topographical Map of the Northern & Middle Mines
1854

An Improved Topographical Map of the Northern & Middle Mines

This richly shaded sheet focuses on California’s northern and middle Sierra Nevada mining districts at the height of the Gold Rush. Milleson overlays county lines in bright watercolor and traces every major river, ridge, road, and settlement from Siskiyou and Shasta south to Tuolumne. A bold orange line marks his proposed route of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, threading eastward through Fredonyer Pass to link Sacramento Valley placers with the Great Basin. Hachures give the mountains a striking relief, while icons pinpoint hard-rock mines and placer diggings clustered along the American, Yuba, and Feather Rivers. The map doubles as a regional travel guide, detailing stage roads, chartered towns, and ferries critical to moving ore and supplies. By combining fresh survey data with engineering annotations, it offered investors and legislators a persuasive case for a trans-Sierra rail corridor serving the richest goldfields of 1850s California.

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Map of the Villages of Bellevue, Niagara Falls and Elgin
1854Niagara Falls Public Library

Map of the Villages of Bellevue, Niagara Falls and Elgin

Judah’s 1854 plat lays out three interlocking townsites on the east bank of the Niagara River just above the cataract. Fine linework shows every proposed street, numbered block, individual lot, and public square, while survey bearings and measured distances tie the plan to existing property lines. A bold canal cut parallels the river, channeling water to future mills before discharging below the gorge. Insets profile the canal prism and river cross-section, underscoring the scheme’s industrial ambitions. Soundings in the river channel, ferry landings, and a tiny steamboat vignette highlight the importance of navigation. Surrounding farm lots are keyed to original patent numbers, bridging the new grid to earlier surveys. The map captures the speculative boom that preceded large-scale hydro development at Niagara Falls.

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Map of the Sacramento Valley Railroad from the City of Sacramento to the Crossing of American River at Negro Bar, Sac. Co.
1854

Map of the Sacramento Valley Railroad from the City of Sacramento to the Crossing of American River at Negro Bar, Sac. Co.

Judah’s plan charts the first railroad surveyed west of the Mississippi, following a 22-mile line from Sacramento’s waterfront southeast through Sutterville, Brighton, and Rancho Leidesdorf before turning northeast to Negro Bar in today’s Folsom. Parallel plats show city blocks to be served by the depots, while land grants and ranch boundaries are lightly sketched to guide right-of-way negotiations. The route hugs the American River bluffs, avoiding flood-prone bottoms and steep grades marked by tight contour hachures. Branch spurs reach Prairie City and Alder Springs mining camps, signaling the line’s primary freight market—gold ore and quartz. Notes identify proposed bridges, trestles, and station grounds, and a bold north arrow ties the sinuous track to compass bearings. The map captures the strategic vision that later evolved into California’s first operating railroad in 1856.

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Map No. 4 — From the Valley of the Mud Lakes to the Pacific Ocean (Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Route near the 47th Parallel)
1855

Map No. 4 — From the Valley of the Mud Lakes to the Pacific Ocean (Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Route near the 47th Parallel)

Prepared for Jefferson Davis’s Pacific Railroad Surveys, this sheet follows Beckwith’s 47th-parallel reconnaissance west from Nevada’s alkaline Mud Lakes across the Cascades to the Columbia River and Pacific coast. A crisp orange line marks the proposed rail axis, while delicate wash shading renders mountain massifs, volcanic plateaus, and dry basins in striking relief. Rivers, lakes, and selected forts anchor the sparse interior, and faint brown tints distinguish timbered uplands from desert flats. Longitudinal and latitudinal grids aid in plotting alternate passes and supply depots. The map’s east–west sweep reveals how engineers weighed steep Cascade grades against gentler basins to the south. As one of the few color plates in the survey atlas, it illustrates both the promise and the challenges of a northern transcontinental route long before the Great Northern Railway was built.

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Map of Routes for a Pacific Railroad — Compiled to Accompany the Report of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, Sec. of War, in Office of P. R. R. Surveys, 1855
1855

Map of Routes for a Pacific Railroad — Compiled to Accompany the Report of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, Sec. of War, in Office of P. R. R. Surveys, 1855

Warren assembles the results of all 1853–55 War Department railroad surveys onto one national sheet, letting viewers compare proposed northern, central, and southern transcontinental alignments at a glance. Heavy black lines trace reconnaissance routes from the Mississippi to the Pacific, including Stevens’s 47th-parallel line, Beckwith’s Great Salt Lake corridor, Gunnison’s central traverse, and Parke’s Gila River path. Lighter hachures render mountain relief, while rivers and few settlements underscore the vast unsettled interior the road would cross. Longitude and latitude grids aid in assessing grades and distances between rival passes. A note explains the map as a “hurried compilation” pending publication of a larger-scale atlas, yet it became the go-to reference for lawmakers debating a Pacific railway in the mid-1850s.

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Map No. 1 from San Francisco Bay to the Northern Boundary of California
1855

Map No. 1 from San Francisco Bay to the Northern Boundary of California

Prepared for the Pacific Railroad Surveys, this hand-colored sheet follows Williamson and Abbot’s reconnaissance north along the Coast Range and through the Klamath Mountains to the Oregon line. A bold yellow wash traces the main exploratory route, while a lighter tint marks alternate passes and valley approaches. Shaded relief vividly depicts the rugged Trinity, Shasta, and Siskiyou uplifts that challenged any rail alignment, and isolated green patches highlight fertile river bottoms such as the Sacramento and Shasta Valleys. Lakes, emerging towns, and Hudson’s Bay Company trails appear sparingly, underscoring the region’s sparse Euro-American settlement in the mid-1850s. Latitude–longitude grids and a mileage scale let engineers gauge grades and distances between candidate passes. The map offers an invaluable snapshot of Northern California topography before large-scale railroad construction and intensive mining reshaped the landscape.

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Preliminary Sketch of the Northern Pacific Rail Road: Exploration and Survey from St Paul to Rivière des Lacs, made in 1853-54
1855

Preliminary Sketch of the Northern Pacific Rail Road: Exploration and Survey from St Paul to Rivière des Lacs, made in 1853-54

This early planning sheet traces Stevens’s reconnaissance northwest from St Paul through the Red River country to Rivière des Lacs on the northern Plains, the first leg of his proposed Northern Pacific line to Puget Sound. A bold diagonal shows the projected track, while lighter spurs record auxiliary scouting trips that assessed river crossings and timber belts. Sparse settlements, trading posts, and Dakota trails appear as tiny labels against wide blank spaces, underscoring the route’s remoteness. The map is framed by a detailed profile strip across the top that charts successive rises over prairie divides, Missouri Coteau ridges, and wooded moraines. Longitude and latitude grids help engineers compare gradients with other survey corridors printed in the Pacific Railroad Reports. Intended as a progress update for Congress, the sketch illustrates both the promise and the engineering unknowns facing a northern transcontinental railroad in the mid-1850s.

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Map of Wagon Road Route from Placerville to Carson Valley
1855

Map of Wagon Road Route from Placerville to Carson Valley

This narrow strip map follows the freight and emigrant wagon road that climbs the Sierra Nevada from Placerville, passing mile-posts 1 through 46 along the South Fork of the American River and Silver Creek before topping the summit near Slippery Ford and descending to Carson Valley. Solid black lines trace the engineered road; dotted lines show earlier mountain tracks such as the “Old Emigrant Road.” Landmarks—including Sugarloaf Rock, Cottage Rock, Tragedy Springs, and Lake Bigler (early name for Lake Tahoe)—anchor the traveler’s progress, while miniature hachures render granite ridges and deep canyons that dictated the road’s sinuous course. Small grid blocks depict Placerville, Coloma, Georgetown, and Diamond Springs, highlighting the route’s importance to Gold-Rush commerce. The map served teamsters and stage operators seeking reliable mileage counts and water stops on the principal crossing of California’s central Sierra before the arrival of the railroad.

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Map of the Villages of Niagara Falls & Niagara City, New York, the Village of Elgin, and the City of the Falls, Canada West
1856Library of Congress

Map of the Villages of Niagara Falls & Niagara City, New York, the Village of Elgin, and the City of the Falls, Canada West

Prepared for the Niagara Falls Water Power Company, this plan links three speculative townsites on both banks of the Niagara River just above the cataract. A broad canal is drawn parallel to the American shore, designed to divert water to mill races before emptying at the gorge edge. Fine grid lines divide the proposed streets, numbered blocks, and individual 25-foot lots, while heavier shading marks the river’s rapids, Goat Island, and prospective bridge abutments. Across the river, a matching layout for Elgin and City of the Falls mirrors the New York side, connected by a projected suspension bridge. Property boundaries, ferry landings, and existing railheads appear lightly, showing how the new grids would mesh with earlier surveys. The map served investors as a promotional tool, illustrating how controlled waterpower and cross-river transport could transform the scenic gorge into a manufacturing hub.

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Map of the Public Surveys in California to Accompany the Report of the Surveyor General 1857
1857

Map of the Public Surveys in California to Accompany the Report of the Surveyor General 1857

This large-format sheet presents the status of federal township surveys only seven years after statehood. Gridded rectangles show townships that had been measured, while vast blank areas in the Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert, and north-coast ranges reveal land still unsurveyed in 1857. Shaded hachures depict mountain relief, and dotted ranchero outlines mark Mexican land grants awaiting confirmation. A boxed legend at lower left lists every private grant already mapped, keyed to their positions on the main sheet. River systems, emerging county seats, and early wagon roads help orient viewers, but the emphasis is clearly on the rectangular public-land grid that would govern homestead entry, mining claims, and railroad land grants in the decades ahead.

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A Birds-Eye View of Sacramento, “The City of the Plain”
1857

A Birds-Eye View of Sacramento, “The City of the Plain”

This sweeping lithograph looks northwest across the Sacramento River, capturing the capital’s rectilinear street grid, levee-lined waterfront, and busy steamboat landings just after the transcontinental railroad reached the city. Smoke plumes from locomotives and river packets hint at Sacramento’s role as a freight hub linking the Southern Pacific rails with river commerce to San Francisco. Orchards and irrigated fields fringe the town, emphasizing its agricultural hinterland, while long plank walks and tree-shaded avenues march toward the distant Yolo plain. A decorative border frames twenty-five inset vignettes of landmark buildings—from the State Capitol under construction to hotels, banks, foundries, and the iconic City Market—serving both as civic pride and as a commercial directory. Fine stipple shading renders surrounding sloughs and swales that the city’s levees were engineered to tame after the disastrous floods of the 1860s. For researchers, Brown’s print offers a richly detailed snapshot of Sacramento’s urban form, riverfront infrastructure, and leading businesses at the dawn of its railroad era.

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Sacramento City — Water Front with Contemplated Improvements
1859

Sacramento City — Water Front with Contemplated Improvements

This promotional lithograph looks across the Sacramento River toward the city’s proposed levee and wharf system, envisioned after the devastating floods of the early 1850s. A continuous plank embankment fronts Front Street, where teams of drays and ox wagons haul freight to warehouses flying mercantile flags. Stern-wheel steamers—among them New World and Young America—crowd the river, underscoring Sacramento’s role as head of navigation for the Gold Country. Slip-ways and timber cribs indicate how the levee would be raised and terraced to protect the downtown grid visible behind the waterfront. Flanking the main vignette are accurate elevations of landmark hotels, markets, and civic buildings, reinforcing investor confidence in the city’s rising commercial stature. The print captures both the bustle of steamboat trade and the ambitious civil-works agenda that would reshape Sacramento into a flood-resilient river port.

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Plat of the New Helvetia Rancho Finally Confirmed to John A. Sutter
1859

Plat of the New Helvetia Rancho Finally Confirmed to John A. Sutter

This official plat traces the 48,839-acre Mexican land grant that encompassed Sutter’s Fort and the future city of Sacramento. A bold red line outlines the irregular rancho boundary as it hugs both banks of the Sacramento River for nearly fifteen miles, while pale blue wash highlights the river’s meanders, sloughs, and tule backwaters. Township-and-range grids, section lines, and meridian references anchor the grant to the federal survey system, and small annotations mark clay bluffs, marshy swales, and early farms such as “Natoma” and “Rancho del Paso.” Four interior lots—including the 560-acre “Sutter Lake” tract—are tabulated with precise acreages, reflecting subdivisions already claimed. Stains and fold marks reveal the plat’s working-document history in land-title litigation that followed Sutter’s 1864 patent. For researchers, the map provides the most detailed 19th-century delineation of New Helvetia’s final U.S. boundaries, crucial for understanding Sacramento’s urban expansion and the legal fate of Sutter’s holdings.

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Map of the Public Surveys in California ; to Accompany Report of the Surveyor Genl., 1860
1860

Map of the Public Surveys in California ; to Accompany Report of the Surveyor Genl., 1860

Issued 10 years after statehood, this updated survey map color-codes California’s terrain: salmon tints mark mountain and desert ranges, green washes note timbered valleys, and the familiar rectangular township grid blankets the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Finished public-land surveys appear as solid section lines; blank expanses in the Sierra, Mojave, and northwest coast reveal areas still unsurveyed in 1860. Outlined ranchos show confirmed Mexican land grants, while a boxed legend lists each private grant by name and acreage for quick reference. Railroads are absent, but wagon roads, military posts, and mining camps thread through the surveyed blocks, underscoring how federal mapping guided settlement and resource claims. Latitude-longitude and township-range ticks let land agents locate any 640-acre section, making this sheet an essential administrative tool for homesteaders, speculators, and county officials during California’s rapid post-Gold-Rush expansion.

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Map of the Country 40 Miles Around San Francisco, Exhibiting the County Lines and Correct Plats of All the Ranchos Finally Surveyed and of the Public Land Sectionized
1860

Map of the Country 40 Miles Around San Francisco, Exhibiting the County Lines and Correct Plats of All the Ranchos Finally Surveyed and of the Public Land Sectionized

Hand-colored to distinguish jurisdictional boundaries, this 1860 sheet shows every confirmed Mexican rancho, shaded township grid, and county line within roughly a forty-mile radius of San Francisco Bay. Pink and yellow blocks outline patented ranchos such as San Pablo, Las Pulgas, and Rancho San Antonio, while the green tint marks federal public lands already subdivided into six-mile townships and one-mile sections. Bold red lines trace county limits then in force, and a fine network of wagon roads, ferries, early rail projects, and stage routes knits together the emerging towns of Oakland, San José, Stockton, and Napa. Hachures render the Coast Range and Diablo Range relief, and tidelands around the Bay appear in pale wash to underscore their reclamation potential. A boxed legend lists more than 130 ranchos by name and acreage, providing a quick index for land speculators and litigators. The map offered lawyers, surveyors, and settlers a definitive snapshot of land titles and survey progress at the height of California’s post-Gold-Rush boom.

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Johnson’s California, Territories of New Mexico and Utah
1862

Johnson’s California, Territories of New Mexico and Utah

This hand-colored atlas plate captures the Far West as it stood during the Civil War, just after the creation of Colorado Territory and the trimming of Utah to form the newly organized Nevada. Pink, blue, and green washes differentiate counties, while a bold magenta outline traces the striking diagonal eastern boundary of early Nevada and the stepped outline of Colorado. Wagon roads, emigrant trails, military forts, and the first overland mail route thread across the Great Basin and Mojave, and small type notes mining camps such as Virginia City, Aurora, and Prescott. Hachures render the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain relief, and faint grids show surveyed townships creeping up the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Insets are absent, but a decorative vine border and engraved title typify Johnson’s mid-1860s atlas style. For researchers, the map snapshots volatile territorial boundaries and transport corridors on the eve of the transcontinental railroad’s completion.

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Map of the Central Pacific Rail Road of California from Sacramento to the Big Bend of the Truckee River
1865

Map of the Central Pacific Rail Road of California from Sacramento to the Big Bend of the Truckee River

Drawn at the height of construction, this map traces the projected Central Pacific main line in bold red from Sacramento across the Sierra Nevada, through Donner Pass, and eastward over Nevada’s Humboldt desert to the Truckee River bend near present-day Wadsworth. Fine topographic hachures show the daunting granite crest and the barren basins that engineers had to conquer, while lighter engraving records wagon roads, mining camps, military forts, and stage stations sprinkled along the corridor. County boundaries in California and the new State of Nevada are edged in pink, and faint township grids mark surveyed public lands ready for railroad land-grant selection. A decorative scroll border and shaded coastal waters reflect mid-century atlas style, but the map’s purpose is practical: to inform investors and lawmakers of grades, water sources, and settlement potential along the first transcontinental rail link.

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Map of California Pacific Railroad, Showing Its Relative Position to Other Railroads
1865

Map of California Pacific Railroad, Showing Its Relative Position to Other Railroads

Issued as an advertising handbill, this map promotes the “short route” linking Sacramento to San Francisco in just four hours by rail to Vallejo and steamer New World across the bay. A bold black line highlights the California Pacific main track and its branches to Napa, Calistoga, Marysville, and the Oregon route junction at Yuba City. Shaded relief and bay soundings orient travelers, while boxed mileage tables compare river, rail, and stage distances to underscore a 52-mile time savings. The inset text explains through-ticketing, baggage transfer at Sacramento, and daily morning and evening trains that connect with Central Pacific arrivals. A second panel lists the railroad’s “present and future” connections, positioning the Cal-Pac as the gateway for freight and emigrants bound for Oregon, Nevada, and the mines. Decorative type and the bold “Take One!” footer reveal the piece’s function as a giveaway flyer at depots and river landings.

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Map of the Territories & Pacific States to Accompany “Across the Continent”
1865

Map of the Territories & Pacific States to Accompany “Across the Continent”

Issued for readers of Bowles’s best-selling account of his 1865 overland journey, this color-tinted map shows the West just after the Civil War. Pink, yellow, and green blocks mark the newest states and territories, including the trimmed boundaries of Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado. Stage routes, emigrant trails, and finished segments of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads thread across the plains and Great Basin toward California. An inset at lower right focuses on California’s growing spiderweb of rail and wagon roads, centering the Sacramento hub. Mountain ranges are rendered with fine hachures, while rivers and forts help travelers follow Bowles’s narrative mile by mile. The sheet served both as a souvenir and a practical guide for prospective settlers planning their own transcontinental trip.

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Railroad Map of the Central Part of California, and Part of Nevada
1865

Railroad Map of the Central Part of California, and Part of Nevada

This large outline map tracks every completed and projected rail line between the Pacific coast and the Sierra Nevada a year before the first transcontinental rails met in Nevada. A single thin red line marks the only operating segment—Sacramento to Folsom—while a web of fine black lines shows proposed extensions north to Marysville and east through Donner Pass toward Virginia City. Township grids appear only where federal surveys were finished, leaving vast blank spaces over the Sierra and Great Basin. Rivers, wagon roads, mining towns, and stage stations dot the landscape, helping investors judge traffic potential along each surveyed right-of-way. Precise latitude–longitude ticks and a diagonal magnetic-north line aid engineers in plotting grades across the rugged topography. For researchers, the sheet captures California’s railroad ambitions on the eve of the Central Pacific’s push over the mountains, documenting routes that were fiercely debated yet never fully built.

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Map of the Public Surveys in California & Nevada to Accompany Report of Commissioner 1883
1866

Map of the Public Surveys in California & Nevada to Accompany Report of Commissioner 1883

This large chromolithographed sheet shows the extent of federal township surveys across California and Nevada three decades after the Gold Rush. Colored county outlines frame a dense checkerboard of completed sections in the fertile valleys, while vast blank blocks in the Sierra Crest, Mojave Desert, and Great Basin reveal land still unsurveyed in 1883. A reference key identifies land offices, completed and proposed railroads, and the locations of gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, coal, and iron mines. Dozens of confirmed Mexican and Spanish land grants are listed in the box at lower left, each keyed to its outline on the map. Shaded hachures depict mountain ranges and desert basins, and fine lines trace wagon roads that knit the public-land grid to isolated mining camps. The map provided lawmakers, settlers, and railroad agents with an authoritative snapshot of survey progress, mineral resources, and transportation corridors at the close of the Reconstruction era.

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Railroad Map of the City of San Francisco, California – 1866
1866

Railroad Map of the City of San Francisco, California – 1866

Issued one year before the first cable cars, this map lays San Francisco’s complete street grid over the shoreline that existed prior to extensive bay fill. Heavy black lines trace every chartered horse-rail and steam line, including the Pacific & Ocean, Central, Market Street, Geary Street, and California Street railroads, all keyed in the lower-left legend. Block numbers, lot lines, and public squares such as Union, Jefferson, and Alta Plaza are shown in meticulous detail, making the sheet useful for real-estate dealers and transit promoters. A fine seawall outline fronts the harbor, while slips and proposed wharves reveal plans for expanded waterfront commerce. The map captures the city at a pivotal transit moment, just as private streetcar companies were racing to connect outlying sand-lot subdivisions with the booming waterfront business district.

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Map of the State of Nevada to Accompany the Annual Report of the Commr Genl Land Office 1866
1866

Map of the State of Nevada to Accompany the Annual Report of the Commr Genl Land Office 1866

This first federal survey map of Nevada outlines each county in bright hand-color and overlays the new state with a one-degree township grid. Blue stipples pinpoint scores of documented silver lodes, while scattered yellow and brown icons mark known gold and copper deposits, underscoring the mineral boom that followed the Comstock discovery. Sparse wagon roads link mining camps such as Austin, Belmont, and Virginia City to the Central Pacific grade at the California line. Hachures give a stark sense of the Basin and Range topography, and salmon-tinted blocks show the few areas already subdivided for homestead and railroad grant selection. The sheet provided Congress and land agents with a snapshot of survey progress, mineral resources, and transport routes only two years after Nevada achieved statehood.

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Diagram Showing the Connection of the Central Pacific Rail Road with the Public Surveys (California–Nevada), 1867
1867

Diagram Showing the Connection of the Central Pacific Rail Road with the Public Surveys (California–Nevada), 1867

This working-scale location map plots the newly constructed Central Pacific main line from the Sacramento Valley across Donner Pass to the Truckee Meadows, draping the track over township-and-range squares of the federal land survey. A continuous dark line marks the railroad’s centerline, while faint dotted grids show six-mile townships awaiting patent under the Pacific Railroad Act land-grant scheme. Drainages, emigrant wagon roads, and summit profiles thread through the Sierra Nevada hachures, and the broad expanse of Lake Tahoe anchors the south edge of the sheet. Survey notes and approval stamps in the right margin document the line’s official acceptance for land-grant certification. Drawn at five miles to the inch, the diagram gave federal clerks and company engineers a common reference for selecting mineral and timber lands within twenty miles of the track. It offers researchers a precise snapshot of the railroad’s as-built alignment only months before the rails pushed east into Nevada’s desert basins.

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Map of the States of California and Nevada
1867

Map of the States of California and Nevada

Prepared just after the Civil War, this richly hand-colored sheet combines county boundaries, township-and-range grids, and five U.S. Land Districts (I – V) shaded in pastel panels. Blue stippling marks silver-mining districts, while shaded ellipses highlight the principal Sierra passes and desert basins that channel travel between the two states. Railroads in operation or under construction thread the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and skirt the Sierra foothills en route to Nevada’s Comstock mines. Dozens of confirmed Mexican ranchos appear as hatched polygons along the coast, contrasting with the un-surveyed public lands of the Mojave and Great Basin. A mileage scale, county seat index, and inset list of private land grants turn the map into a practical reference for land agents, miners, and railroad promoters. Altogether the sheet offers a detailed snapshot of settlement, resources, and survey progress during California and Nevada’s explosive post-Gold-Rush growth.

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Map of the Route of the Southern Continental R. R., Showing the Recent Surveys of the Kansas Pacific Railway Co. across the Continent (1867–68)
1868

Map of the Route of the Southern Continental R. R., Showing the Recent Surveys of the Kansas Pacific Railway Co. across the Continent (1867–68)

Intended to promote a low-latitude rival to the newly opened Union Pacific line, this map traces Palmer’s 1867–68 survey from Kansas City and Fort Smith to the Pacific via Albuquerque, the Gila River, and San Diego. A bold line marks the proposed main track, while lighter spurs indicate feeder routes linking south-central Colorado mines and the Texas frontier. Hachures render the continental divide and desert ranges the railroad would have to conquer, and a one-degree grid helps investors gauge grades and distances. River crossings, military forts, and stage stations pepper the route, underscoring its strategic value for freight and troop movement. By contrasting the “Southern Continental” path with existing eastern railheads, the sheet makes a business case for federal land grants and bonds to fund the Kansas Pacific’s southwestern extension.

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Map Showing Lands Owned by the Central Pacific Rail Road Company of California in the City of Sacramento, with the Tracks, Buildings, and Other Improvements Thereon
1869

Map Showing Lands Owned by the Central Pacific Rail Road Company of California in the City of Sacramento, with the Tracks, Buildings, and Other Improvements Thereon

Drawn at 200 feet to an inch, this plan delineates every parcel the Central Pacific held on Sacramento’s riverfront after the completion of the transcontinental line. A fan of sidings spreads north from the Front-Street passenger depot and river wharf to reach roundhouse stalls, car shops, paint and blacksmith shops, a foundry, and machine-shop yards—all shaded in red to distinguish existing buildings from projected ones shown in outline. The walled embankment that realigned the American River’s “Old Bed” forms the west edge, enclosing a crescent-shaped yard labeled “Property of the Central Pacific Rail Road.” East of the tracks, the city’s numbered grid from First to Seventh Streets is left blank, underscoring how railroad land cut a deep arc into Sacramento’s regular street pattern. The map also notes “Sutter’s Lake granted to the Central Pacific Rail Road of Cal. by the State of California,” illustrating reclaimed swamp converted to industrial use. Compact yet precise, the sheet served both as an internal facilities guide and as documentation for land-title filings with the city and state.

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County Map of the State of California
1870

County Map of the State of California

Typical of Mitchell’s post-Civil-War atlases, this hand-colored sheet outlines every California county in contrasting pastels and shades township grids where U.S. land surveys were complete. Railroads—completed and projected—thread the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and climb the Sierra to meet the Central Pacific at Reno, while wagon roads and overland mail routes lace the deserts and coast. Mountain relief is rendered with fine hachures, and the state’s river drainage is carefully engraved for emigrant reference. A large inset fills the northeastern corner with a numbered ward map of San Francisco’s street grid, and a second inset at lower left details ferry routes and rail lines around San Francisco Bay. Mitchell’s trademark grape-vine border frames the composition, turning a practical land guide into an elegant atlas plate.

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Bird’s-Eye View of the City of Sacramento, State Capital of California — 1870
1870

Bird’s-Eye View of the City of Sacramento, State Capital of California — 1870

Koch’s sweeping perspective looks southeast from above the American River, portraying Sacramento two years after completion of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific’s riverfront yards dominate the left foreground, with roundhouse smoke and switching tracks curving toward the track-filled “Machine Shop Yards.” Stern-wheel steamers, barges, and wharf cranes line the Sacramento River levee, underscoring the city’s dual rail-and-river freight role. A perfectly rectilinear street grid stretches toward the distant Sutter Sloughs, punctuated by tree-lined squares and the partially built second State Capitol rising at 10th and L Streets. Beyond the town, orchards, levee roads, and reclaimed tule marshes foreshadow the agricultural expansion of the 1870s. Numbered keys below the view identify 36 landmarks—hotels, churches, schools, depots, and flour mills—offering historians a precise inventory of post-flood, early-rail Sacramento.

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Map of the Georgetown Divide, El Dorado County, Embracing Also Portions of the Placerville and Forest Hill Divide. Showing the Ditches, Mines and Other Properties of the California Water Company
1873

Map of the Georgetown Divide, El Dorado County, Embracing Also Portions of the Placerville and Forest Hill Divide. Showing the Ditches, Mines and Other Properties of the California Water Company

This historic map, created by civil engineer Amos Bowman, details the rugged terrain of the Georgetown Divide in El Dorado County, California, along with adjacent portions of the Placerville and Forest Hill Divides. Published during the height of California’s mining era, it showcases the extensive network of ditches, mines, and infrastructure owned by the California Water Company. With its finely rendered topography and meticulous labeling, the map offers a rare glimpse into the complex water systems that supported hydraulic mining and gold extraction in the Sierra Nevada foothills during the 19th century.

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Map of the Union Central Great Trans-Continental Railroad and Its Connections from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast
1874

Map of the Union Central Great Trans-Continental Railroad and Its Connections from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast

Printed in long “strip-map” format, this promotional piece tracks the newly completed Union and Central Pacific main line in a bold black ribbon from Omaha across Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada to San Francisco Bay. Hundreds of tiny place-names, siding stops, and mountain passes run parallel to the track, giving travelers mile-by-mile reference points for every water tank and station. Radiating webs of thinner lines show feeder railroads east of the Missouri and proposed branches into Idaho, Colorado, and the Comstock mining districts. A fare table at the right lists through-ticket prices from San Francisco to ports around the world, underscoring the route’s global reach, while the lower margin is ringed with advertisements for bankers, insurance firms, sewing machines, and “Fine Gold Chains.” Compact yet information-rich, the map served as both a pocket navigation aid and a rolling billboard for businesses eager to reach America’s first coast-to-coast rail passengers.

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Map Showing the Salt Marsh, Tide, and Submerged Lands of the State of California in the Bays of San Francisco and San Pablo — 1874
1874

Map Showing the Salt Marsh, Tide, and Submerged Lands of the State of California in the Bays of San Francisco and San Pablo — 1874

Issued jointly by federal and state harbor boards, this large hydrographic chart classifies every acre of shoreline around San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. Four tints separate upland, salt-marsh, tide-covered, and fully submerged state-owned tracts targeted for sale or reclamation, while gridded plats mark private waterfront subdivisions already surveyed. Thousands of depth soundings, navigation channels, and ferry routes scatter across the pale bay surface, and fine hachures outline the coastal bluffs, creek mouths, and sloughs ringing the estuary. Proposed bulkheads and seawalls appear as dashed red lines, revealing early plans to convert mudflats into wharves and rail yards. An acreage table at lower right tallies more than 82,000 acres of tide and submerged lands then under state jurisdiction. The map provides a rare, color-coded snapshot of Bay Area shorelines before massive 20th-century fill reshaped them.

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Map of the Southern Pacific Rail Road and Connections — June 1875
1875

Map of the Southern Pacific Rail Road and Connections — June 1875

This compact atlas sheet uses bold black lines to trace Southern Pacific tracks then open or under construction from San Francisco south to Los Angeles and east through the Mojave toward Yuma. Red dashed lines show connecting railroads such as the Central Pacific in the Sacramento Valley and the Oregon & California line pushing north toward Portland. A wash-tinted relief palette highlights the Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, and desert basins, while fine rivers and lake outlines orient the eye across California, Nevada, Utah, and the Arizona frontier. State boundaries are edged in bright hand color, and township grids appear where federal surveys were complete, notably in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. The legend at lower left clarifies the two track symbols, turning the map into a progress report for investors following Southern Pacific’s race to build a low-latitude transcontinental route.

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Union & Central Pacific Route to Southern California
1875

Union & Central Pacific Route to Southern California

This tall emigrant handbill marries aggressive land promotion with a color map (adapted from the June 1875 “Map of the Southern Pacific Rail Road and Connections”). Bold black and red lines trace the completed Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific’s new Los Angeles–Yuma construction, while lighter links show Union Pacific feeders stretching east from Omaha and Kansas City. Surrounding text shouts “Cheap Farms! Good Markets! Healthy Climate!” and offers settlers low fares, through tickets, and 3,000,000 acres of railroad land at “very low prices.” Crop lists—grain, citrus, raisins, olives—underscore Southern California’s horticultural promise, and mileage notes highlight direct rail communication between San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the Gulf of Mexico. As both map and broadsheet, the piece illustrates how the joined Union and Central Pacific lines marketed their southern extension to populate arid California valleys.

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Map of California — To Accompany Printed Argument of S. O. Houghton as to the Rights of the Southern Pacific R. R. Co. of Cal. to Government Lands under Acts of Congress Passed July 27 1866 and March 3 1871 (May 1876)
1876

Map of California — To Accompany Printed Argument of S. O. Houghton as to the Rights of the Southern Pacific R. R. Co. of Cal. to Government Lands under Acts of Congress Passed July 27 1866 and March 3 1871 (May 1876)

Drawn for a Senate and House Judiciary Committee hearing, this 1876 brief map sets out every congressional charter line claimed by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Heavy red and blue bands differentiate five alignments: the original 1865 Central Pacific, the 1865 Southern Pacific charter, the 1867 plat recorded at the General Land Office, the 1870 amended charter, and the projected Texas & Pacific connector from Tehachapi Pass to Yuma. Township grids highlight surveyed public-land blocks eligible for the company’s alternating-section grants, while green shading marks already patented railroad selections. Fine hachures and drainage engraving portray the Sierra crest, Coast Ranges, and Mojave Basin that dictated each surveyed route. By concentrating on charter boundaries rather than towns, the sheet served as a legal exhibit to defend odd-numbered section claims along more than 1,200 miles of projected track.

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Land-Classification Map of Parts of Eastern California and Western Nevada (U.S. Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, Sheet 23 E/23 W)
1877

Land-Classification Map of Parts of Eastern California and Western Nevada (U.S. Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, Sheet 23 E/23 W)

This large-scale sheet uses four pastel tints to classify federal lands along the Sierra–Great Basin divide: cultivable (buff), timber (green), grazing (light yellow), and desert or saline (white). Finely engraved contours and shadowed slopes render the snow-capped Sierra Nevada on the west and the parallel ranks of the White, Inyo, and Wassuk ranges on the east. Mono Lake, Owens Lake, and the alkali flats of Long Valley appear starkly uncolored, signaling “land of no value.” Wagon roads thread the Walker, Carson, and Owens river corridors, while faint township grids mark the only areas yet surveyed for homestead entry. Mining camps such as Bodie, Aurora, and Lundy are labeled, but the dominant impression is of rugged topography and sparse settlement. Created for Congress to guide railroad grants and water-development policy, the map remains one of the most detailed 19th-century portrayals of California’s eastern escarpment and adjacent Nevada basins.

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Map Showing the Line of the True Southern Pacific Railway and the Short Link Necessary for Its Completion
1881

Map Showing the Line of the True Southern Pacific Railway and the Short Link Necessary for Its Completion

This brochure-style strip map plots an all-rail Gulf-to-Pacific trunk line along the 32nd-parallel corridor championed as the “True” Southern Pacific. A heavy blue line marks completed track from Los Angeles east to Mesilla (N.M.) and from Houston through New Orleans to Atlanta and the Atlantic seaboard; a contrasting red dash shows the missing 150-mile “short link” across west-Texas desert whose construction would create an unbroken low-latitude route between every Atlantic and Gulf port and the entire Pacific Coast. Existing eastern rail networks are densely over-printed to emphasize traffic connections, while pastel state tints and fine hachures outline the deserts, basins, and mountain flanks the road would traverse. A cartouche pledges that once the gap is built “every Gulf City and every Atlantic City [will have] direct rail communication with the whole Pacific Coast,” framing the map squarely as a lobbying piece aimed at Congress and investors considering federal land-grant aid for the project.

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Official Map of Sacramento County, California — 1885
1885

Official Map of Sacramento County, California — 1885

Shepherd’s wall map subdivides the entire county into precise township, range, and one-square-mile section grids, overprinted with colorful outlines for 14 civil districts and the boundaries of older Mexican ranchos such as Del Paso and San Juan. Railroads radiating from Sacramento—the Central Pacific main line, the California & Oregon, and the narrow-gauge Folsom branch—are traced in bold black, while wagon roads, ferries, and levees thread through reclaimed tule basins along the American and Sacramento Rivers. Shaded relief distinguishes the Sierra foothills east of Folsom from the flat delta islands to the south, and tiny tick marks show drainage ditches that turned swamp into farmland. Insets illustrate the new State Capitol, the 1854 Courthouse, and the Insane Asylum at Stockton, underscoring civic pride. A distance table and agricultural statistics flank the title block, making the sheet both a land-title reference and a marketing tool for settlers attracted by orchard and grain acreage. Today the map provides an invaluable snapshot of property lines, transportation corridors, and reclamation works at the close of Sacramento County’s pioneer era.

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Auburn, Cal. — Presented with Compliments of W. B. Lardner, Real Estate Agent, Auburn, Placer Co., Cal.
1887

Auburn, Cal. — Presented with Compliments of W. B. Lardner, Real Estate Agent, Auburn, Placer Co., Cal.

This richly colored bird’s-eye view looks north-east across Auburn’s rolling Sierra-foothill orchards toward the snow-capped crest. The central panorama is ringed by twenty-two vignette sketches of local landmarks, including the courthouse, Sierra Normal College, fruit ranches, hydraulic mines, and the Central Pacific trestle, underscoring Auburn’s blend of education, agriculture, and gold-rush industry. Every street, flume, irrigation ditch, and rail spur is crisply drawn, while thousands of evenly spaced fruit and olive trees cloak the hills in green, advertising the region’s horticultural promise. A keyed legend identifies nineteen public buildings and businesses, and a tiny inset map shows Auburn’s rail connections to Sacramento and San Francisco. Produced as a promotional premium for Lardner’s real-estate office, the print was aimed at would-be settlers seeking “homes in the Italy of California.” Today it offers historians a detailed snapshot of Placer County’s evolving economy in the late 1880s.

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Tourist’s Map of California — Published by the Southern Pacific Company, 1888
1888

Tourist’s Map of California — Published by the Southern Pacific Company, 1888

Issued as a fold-out brochure for vacationers, this tall strip map fills the state with subtle hypsometric colors: green for low valleys, yellow for rolling uplands, and brick red for high Sierra and desert plateaus. A bold black network traces Southern Pacific mainlines and branches then open—from San Francisco Bay to Shasta, the San Joaquin Valley trunk, the Tehachapi loop into Los Angeles, and the newly completed Sunset Route toward Yuma—while lighter dashed lines indicate connecting roads. Tiny locomotive symbols mark division points, and a boxed elevation table at the top lists twenty-one scenic peaks from Mt. Shasta to Castle Peak to entice sight-seers. Coastal steamship lanes and ferry crossings ring the inset of San Francisco Bay printed faintly beneath the title block, underscoring the company’s integrated rail-and-water service. With its compact size, bright tints, and easy-to-follow route diagram, the map functioned both as an advertising piece and a pocket guide for eastern tourists bound for California’s mountains, orchards, and seaside resorts.

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Sacramento — Bird’s-Eye View Published by the Daily Record-Union and Weekly Union
1890

Sacramento — Bird’s-Eye View Published by the Daily Record-Union and Weekly Union

Seen from a vantage above the Sacramento River just south of the rail yards, this sweeping panorama spreads the capital’s rigid street grid across the plain to the foothills. A busy waterfront of steam-packets, wharf cranes, and the Central Pacific’s trestle bridges frames the foreground, while the broad American River traces a leafy arc on the northern horizon. The image is bordered by twenty-eight inset vignettes—State Capitol, hotels, schools, mansions, factories, railroad shops—advertising the city’s civic pride and commercial vitality. An indexed key below the view identifies churches, mills, depots, and public buildings, accompanied by booster text touting Sacramento’s climate, orchards, and rail connections. Executed in Elliott’s characteristic stippled style, the lithograph captures both the post-railroad rebuilding boom and the orderly suburban expansion of the 1890s, offering historians a richly detailed snapshot of California’s river metropolis at the close of the nineteenth century.

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California — Sacramento Sheet
1891

California — Sacramento Sheet

This 30-minute topographic sheet captures Sacramento Valley floor and Sierra foothill transition before large-scale levee and suburban development. Contour lines at 100-foot intervals model the sharp rise from the flat American and Sacramento River floodplains into the granitic canyons of the lower Sierra. Township-and-range grids blanket the valley, and thin black spurs show the Central Pacific’s main line from Sacramento north through Roseville to Rocklin. Stage roads, irrigation ditches, and early small towns such as Folsom, Lincoln, and Fair Oaks appear sparsely plotted, emphasizing the region’s rural character in the late 1880s. Blue drainage traces every slough and tributary, while intermittent marsh symbols mark tule swamps yet to be reclaimed. Compiled under Henry Gannett’s nationwide quadrangle program, the map set a precise geodetic framework that later surveys of levees, highways, and urban plats would build upon.

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Sacramento — Bird’s-Eye View Published by the Daily Record-Union and Weekly Union
1895

Sacramento — Bird’s-Eye View Published by the Daily Record-Union and Weekly Union

This sweeping panorama looks southeast across the Sacramento River, capturing the capital’s gridded streets, wharf-front steamboats, and rail yards only a generation after the transcontinental line arrived. A frame of 28 inset vignettes features the State Capitol, hotels, theaters, schools, and stately residences, doubling as a business directory. The central view shows the Central Pacific machine-shop complex and river bridges in the foreground, tree-lined avenues marching toward farmland in the distance, and the partially built State Capitol dome rising above downtown. Extensive levees, orchards, and irrigation canals reveal post-flood reclamation and agricultural expansion. Numbered keys and booster text along the bottom promote Sacramento’s climate, transportation links, and growing industries, making the lithograph both a civic portrait and a late-19th-century marketing piece for California’s river metropolis.

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California — Karquines Quadrangle (Topographic Sheet)
1898

California — Karquines Quadrangle (Topographic Sheet)

This 15-minute USGS sheet portrays the Carquinez–Suisun Bay region at a 1:125 000 scale with 25-foot contour intervals. Brown contours and stippled shading model the folded Coast Range ridges of Mount Vaca, Tolenas Hills, and Vallejo’s Mare Island peninsula, while extensive blue overprint marks tule marshes, tidal sloughs, and the broad expanse of Suisun Bay and Grizzly Island. A dashed shipping channel traces the Carquinez Strait, and fine black lines show the Southern Pacific main line, branch spurs to Benicia Arsenal and Mare Island, plus wagon roads radiating toward Fairfield, Vacaville, and Martinez Ferry. Section-line grids appear only on the valley floor, emphasizing surveyed agricultural tracts contrasted with unsurveyed uplands. The neat-line margins list conventional symbols and adjacent quadrangles, illustrating the early USGS effort to build a seamless national topographic map for engineers, navigators, and land-use planners.

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Map of California – Compiled from Latest Official Authentic Information by the Southern Pacific Company
1901

Map of California – Compiled from Latest Official Authentic Information by the Southern Pacific Company

Printed in two colors, this large sheet presents every Southern Pacific main line and branch then in operation: the Shasta Route to Oregon, the Overland line through Donner Pass, the San Joaquin Valley and Coast Routes, the Sunset Route to El Paso, and a web of electric interurbans around Los Angeles and the Bay Area – all drawn in bold blue over a pale county base. A red overprint singles out recent extensions such as the Natron Cut-off, while a boxed mileage table lets tourists calculate fares between any two SP stations. The right-hand third of the sheet is filled with a dense alphabetical directory of more than 1,400 stops, keyed to a letter-number grid around the map’s border for quick location. Insets detail Napa Valley and the Bay ferries. By combining a traveler’s gazetteer with a striking visual of the company’s reach, the map served both as a timetable supplement and as persuasive advertising for Southern Pacific’s “Sunset-Ogden-Shasta Routes.”

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Placer County, California — Issued by the State Mining Bureau
1902

Placer County, California — Issued by the State Mining Bureau

This county-wide sheet plots every patented and active mine in vivid red against a one-mile public-land grid. Black hachured lines trace the American River and its gold-bearing tributaries, while wagon roads and the Southern Pacific’s Sierra grade thread northeast toward Donner Pass. Township and range numbers are lettered across the foothills, guiding prospectors to exact legal descriptions. Concentrations of red dots around Auburn, Dutch Flat, and Foresthill reveal the heart of the quartz- and hydraulic-gold belt, whereas the western valley floor shows only scattered gravel pits. The map was published in the bureau’s Forty-Fourth Report to help investors compare mineral districts and to aid county assessors in taxing mining properties.

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