Municipalities & Principal Companies Supplying Water San Gabriel Valley

Mapping Southern California’s water supplies during the mid-1920s.

This colorful map of Southern California reflects concerns about local water supplies that persist nearly a century later. The properties occupied by over fifty different municipal and corporate water suppliers are shaded with various hues and identified in the key, lower right. A second legend, center left, notes the symbols used to denote various boundaries, railroads, water courses, dikes, and habitable foothill areas across the rapidly growing region.

The map was prepared by the Division of Water Rights of the California State Department of Public Works and published in 1926 as part of a statewide investigation on California’s water resources.