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

Cartographer: Compiled in the Surveyor General’s Office, U.S. General Land Office (California), 1857

Year: 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.