Maps are a valuable tool for agriculture owners. They can convey property information in a single image. The map helps the new owner understand their land and manage it more effectively. Maps can also help with planning which crops to plant where. Additionally, is the land good for what is being planned to grow on that land? Finally, maps can be used to perform effective resource management. This map is scanned into the Wine History Project’s digital archive collection from the original copy found in Max Goldman’s personal papers.
Ephemera found in Max Goldman’s family gift to the Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County and now saved to the digital archives collection.
Current map, which includes where York Mountain is located.
U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers Topographic Engineer Making A Map During World War I
Lietz invented and patented “one of the most important improvements of the age” Surveyor’s Instrument – Cyclotomic Transit.
A Treasure Found In The Ephemera Of Max Goldman’s York Mountain Winery Materials
One can imagine that when you become the owner of a large vineyard, there would be a scavenger hunt to find a good map to look for details of that property. The topography, soil types, history, and size would be of interest. As part of the ephemera, the Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County received as a gift from the Max Goldman family, we found a map created by the A. Lietz Co. stamped on a geological survey map. This special map was created by the Department of the Interior, War Department, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, originally created in 1919, but this copy was a reprint dated 1943.
Max Goldman Purchases York Mountain Winery
Max Goldman (1910-2004), whose career had begun within weeks of the repeal of Prohibition. He was very important to the wine industry not only in California and the United States. Starting his career in Lodi as a chemist, evolved into a winemaker, a champagne maker, and ultimately spent the last act of his life as the owner and award-winning estate winemaker in San Luis Obispo County on York Mountain. Goldman purchased and restored the York Mountain Winery and vineyards during 1970-2001.
The winery and tasting room, located at an elevation of 1500 feet above sea level, also provided a cool, maritime climate because of its proximity to the Pacific Ocean. It is located at the opening of what is now known as the Templeton Gap, which is a channel in the Santa Lucia Mountains.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS)
The USGS was founded as the Geological Survey and was an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior on March 3, 1879. Their mission was to study the landscape of the United States, both its natural resources and the natural hazards which threaten it.
For a quick history lesson, in the mid-1800s, various states set up geological survey institutions. In 1879, a report from the National Academy of Sciences prompted Congress to set up a federal survey agency, in part to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Mexican-American War of 1848. The USGS was authorized in a last-minute amendment to an unrelated bill that charged the new agency with the “classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain”.
The first director of USGS, Clarence King (an American geologist, mountaineer, and author), assembled disparate regional survey agencies, and he was succeeded after two years by John Wesley Powell (an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, and professor at Illinois Wesleyan University).
The A. Lietz Company
The 1943 copy of the original map created in 1919, is stamped with The A. Lietz Company information. Whether Max Goldman obtained it from this organization is not known.
Adolph Lietz (1860-1935), a German who immigrated to San Francisco in 1879, worked in several scientific and surveying instrument shops before opening his own in 1882. The firm incorporated in 1892, and by 1910, he had added a complete line of drafting materials and engineering equipment.
