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)

Cartographer: Prepared by G. W. & C. B. Colton & Co., New York, for attorney S. O. Houghton

Year: 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.