What did the Coachella Valley, the city of Coachella in particular, look like in the 1910s? I'm wondering, in particular, what the major roads were. And, this is probably a futile question, but are there any maps of the city, or the valley in general, from this time period (or the '20s)?
I have a story I'm working on that takes place in Coachella, that happens to be in an alternate history timeline with a point of divergence during WWI. Coachella, in the timeline, reaches a population of a couple hundred thousand by the 2030s, when the story takes place (in part because the aircraft industry moved there from Burbank, though I'm not sure how plausible that'd be). I know I can probably just make stuff up, but I don't want to -- I mean, I know there would be radical changes over 100 years, but the main boulevards would probably remain the same. Anyways...
Thanks.
A Google Image search for Riverside County historical maps will turn up several things that may be of interest.
A 1916 map of mines and the roads leading to them
Topographic maps from that era
You can also look at topo maps on historicaerials.com, but it can be hard to get the big picture. And all old topos can be downloaded from http://nationalmap.gov/historical/