Miller and Lux Survey Office

surveyoffice: Miller and Lux Survey Office

Large scale farming and ranching was needed to supply the restaurants and grocery stores in fast-growing cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles in the late 1800s.

Henry Miller and Charles Lux purchased large areas of land throughout the western states to control the supply of cattle for their San Francisco butchering operation. By the late 1880s, Miller & Lux had acquired more than one million acres in California, Nevada, and Oregon. Most of their land was located in the San Joaquin Valley.

The small town of Buttonwillow was the Kern County headquarters for the Miller & Lux land and agricultural partnership. Miller & Lux surveyors took accurate measurements of land areas in order to determine boundaries, elevations, and dimensions.

This survey office was built around 1906. Later, the Buena Vista Water Storage District used the building.

The Buttonwillow Chamber of Commerce donated this building to the museum in 1966.
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