California — Karquines Quadrangle (Topographic Sheet)

Cartographer: U.S. Geological Survey; R. U. Goode, Geographer in Charge; triangulation by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; topography by L. C. Fletcher and U.S.C.& G.S. parties, surveyed 1896, edition filed 28 March 1898

Year: 1898

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.