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Travel: These Maps Inspire Us to Drive

These Maps Inspire Us to Drive

By Petrolicious
August 1, 2013

Road maps aren’t dying, they’re dead. Somehow it took something like ninety years before anyone had the idea of laminating them in easily foldable segments, right in time for the rise of cell phones equipped with built-in GPS navigation apps. Obsolete though they may be, some of these old maps were very beautiful, and not only for those interested in the obscure art of cartography. Gathered below are a handful of vintage maps featuring some really bold and wonderful graphic design, all of which make us want to go for a long drive somewhere we haven’t been.

Image Sources: dfwfreeways.info, numberoftheday.co.uk, ebay.com, flickr.com, ebay.com, doubletakesblog.com, flickr.com, retroroadmap.com, flickr.com, flickr.com, oshermaps.org

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Navigation Road Maps Vintage Friday
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Caml
Caml
11 years ago

Nothing epic, but I’m taking 110 miles of US and SC highways I’ve never driven before to stay in a strange house on a lake I’ve never swum in. All in a car I’ve never taken out of town before: My new ’95 Miata! Super excited. And I just planned my route on a paper map I got 3 cars ago.

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Adam Holter
Adam Holter
11 years ago

Awesome post! I just got back from a 4500-mile road trip out to Wyoming and back in my ’68 Dart (well, most of the way…long story)…used maps the whole way! Very cool stuff.

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Josh Clason
Josh Clason
11 years ago
Reply to  Adam Holter

That is incredibly cool! Where did you go? Any pics from the trip? Any routes you suggest?

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Adam Holter
Adam Holter
11 years ago
Reply to  Josh Clason

Sure, all the pics worth printing are on my blog–I’m doing daily write-ups:

http://365daysofdart.blogspot.com/

Along the way to and from, standout scenery spots are the Mississippi river between LaCrosse, Wi and Minneapolis, MN , Bighorn National Forest into Wyoming, The Grand Tetons in Wyoming, Yellowstone in Wyoming, Crazy Mountains in Montana, the entire Bozeman area (which I would have liked to spend more time in). Wibaux, Montana and Dubois, Wyoming are very quaint towns (not scenic so much as classic Americana), and Van Buren State Park on Lake Michigan. Avoid Chicago, I lost a total of 4 hours in traffic both to and from.

My final destination was the ranch my cousin is working on in Dubois, Wy; I would highly suggest coming down through Bighorn to get there (also, the switchbacks practically cry out to be driven in some sort of British roadster). The Wind River Valley is stunning, and the views up on the mountain are simply epic. Rt. 287 from DuBois to Jackson is gorgeous, though there a lot of road construction over the Togwotee Pass, so there are some occasional delays. In Montana Gallatin Road from Yellowstone to Bozeman is simply beautiful.

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Walter R. Moore
Walter R. Moore
11 years ago

I want to go to SOCONYLAND.

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