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

Cartographer: A. W. von Schmidt, Deputy U.S. Surveyor (field survey September–October 1859)

Year: 1859

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.