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This 1889 official map of Santa Barbara County, California, published by civil engineers Riecker, Huber & Mench and drawn by Paul Riecker, presents a detailed snapshot of the county’s landscape and land ownership as the region entered a period of rapid development. Approved by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors in 1888, it was the definitive resource for boundary, township, and property information in the last decades of the 19th century.

At approximately six feet wide, the impressive wall map highlights the rugged terrain of the San Rafael and Santa Ynez Mountains and the coastal contours along the Santa Barbara Channel. Inset maps detail the layout of key communities, including Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Lompoc, and Los Alamos, each illustrating early street grids and property divisions that reflect the structured growth of these towns.

The map’s comprehensive table of land grants documents the Spanish and Mexican-era ranchos, showing their names and acreages. This feature underscores the continuity of these large landholdings in shaping the county’s settlement patterns, even as the area transitioned toward a more Americanized development model.

Passages in the local newspapers give a sense of the contemporary appraisal of the map. April 6, 1889, in The Lompoc Record:

We have hung up in the RECORD office one of Santa Barabara county's new official maps, prepared and presented the RECORD by Mr. Paul Riecker, surveyor and civil engineer. The map is especially valuable to us who live in the western portion of Santa Barbara county, since it gives a correct plat of the many ranchos centered here, together with the subdivisions of property noted and nubmered. It is for public use and all can consult it when they have need of information. Mr. Ricker will please accept our thanks for the valuable present. We would suggest to the trustees of the various school districts in the county the advantage and propriety of securing one of these maps. It shows the boundary of each school district and a plat of each town.

January 9, 1889, in the Santa Barbara Daily Independent:

THE NEW MAP.

The Independent Publishing Co., has been presented with one of the handsome new maps of Santa Barbara County, compiled and drawn by Paul Riecker, and published by Riecker, Huber & Mench, civil engineers. It is very fine and perfect, and of large size, showing distinctly every mountain range, the indentations of the coast, streams, etc., and with all the large ranchos in the county carefully drawn and colored, with plans of towns and the topography of the outlying islands in the channel, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Anacapa, the two former belonging to and assessed as a part of Santa Barbara County.

The map is cheap at the price asked, namely, $10, and will be both ornamental and useful in the office of any business man. Supervisor Districts and School Districts are plainly marked by colored lines, and plans are given of Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Lompoc, and Los Alamos. At the right hand lower corner is a table showing the area of land grants, such as Cañada de los Pinos, Casmalia, Corral de Quati, the two Cuyamas, El Rincon, Guadalupe, Jesus Maria, Las Cruces, La Laguna, La Zaca, Lomas de la Purificacion, Lompoc, Los Alamos, Los Dos Pueblos, Los Prietos and Najalayegua, Mision de la Purisima, Nojoqui, Nuestra Señora del Refugio, Punta de la Concepcion, Punta de la Laguna, Salsipuedes, San Carlos de Jonata, San Julian, San Marcos, Santa Cruz (the island), Santa Rita, Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa (the island), Sisquoc, Suey, Tepusquet, Tequepis, Tinaquaic, Todos Santos, and Cañada del Corral.

This map has been accepted by the Board of Supervisors, and is declared to be the official map of Santa Barbara County. It is elegantly mounted and is altogether a very fine and perfect piece of work.

Rarity

The map is extremely rare on the antiquarian market, with no copies list in RBH or OldMaps.com. This is the first time we have offered it for sale in over 30 years in business.

OCLC (17632303) locates examples at the California Historical Society, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, and AGS. The Library of Congress has one or more examples. The Santa Barbara Public Library also appears to have an example of the map.

Not in Rumsey.