California — Sacramento Sheet

Cartographer: U.S. Geological Survey; Henry Gannett, Chief Geographer; A. H. Thompson, Geographer in Charge; triangulation by H. M. Wilson; topography by H. M. Wilson and A. F. Dunnington (surveyed 1887, first edition 1891)

Year: 1891

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.