CHS Cartographic Collection

52 19th and early 20th century maps of California have been added to the California Historical Society’s new Digital Library. The images represent a sampling of unique or uncommonly held titles ranging geographically from an 1863 map of the copper region of Del Norte County in the north, to a circa 1866 Topographical Map Showing the Locations of the Sutro Tunnel and the Comstock Lode, to a colorful 1913 townsite map of Date City (now called Calipatria) in Imperial County in the south. In between are city, county, mining, real property, water-supply, road, and railroad maps of various localities throughout the state.  Check it out!

calhistsoc

Dead Man’s Island of San Pedro

There once was a tiny island at the entrance to the San Pedro harbor named Dead Man’s Island, which was named for the shallow graves dug into its flat top.  The small island measured at least 800 feet long and 250 wide and rose 55 feet above the sea, separated from the San Pedro bluffs with almost a mile of open water between.

As part of a program of extensive harbor improvements, Continue reading →