The Unique Map of California
Cartographer:
Johnstone, E. McD.
Date of Creation:
after 1887
A variant issue of this map, otherwise known in two states, overprinted in red ‘with compliments of Kohler & Van Bergen, San Francisco and New York, California Wines and Brandies’.
Published under the auspices of the Southern Pacific Company and the State Board of Trade of California, this is a magnificent map featuring twenty very fine vignettes of natural wonders such as Palm Valley, Mt. Whitney, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, geysers, Redwoods, Castle Rocks, Mount Shasta; and man-made ones, like The Coronado Hotel in San Diego, the Hotel Del Monte in Monterey, the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton completed in 1887, and the Railroad Loop at the Tehachapi Pass, and the railroad around the steep peninsula of Cape Horn. These and other landmarks are numbered in the map, but the key is no longer present. There are also insets showing the relative heights of the Sierra mountains, annual temperatures, soil types, and a map showing the relative area covered by California which is larger than New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Ohio combined.