Description
This collection includes forty-one bound volumes of assessment maps, each marked with surveying coordinates, that early officials
of San Joaquin County, California, compiled annually between 1876 and 1919. Among the data included in each volume are property
boundaries, names of owners, significant landmarks, and assessed value of real property.
Background
San Joaquin County traces its political origins to California's entry into the Union in 1850. By then, the County had already
demonstrated its strategic value as a gateway to California's Central Valley and southern gold fields during the Gold Rush
of 1849. As Gold Fever subsided, settlers also recognized the value of the County's soil and the potential for agricultural
development. The volumes included in this collection reflect intensified farming and increasingly concentrated ownership that
characterized the County during the last part of the nineteenth century and the opening of the twentieth. During that period,
the County's population tripled, from approximately twenty-four thousand to seventy-nine thousand.
Restrictions
No access or copyright restrictions.
Availability
Collection is open for research