Old Road Maps

[Bell Charter Oak Holsters]

Just read a blurb in the AARP magazine, saying that old road maps can bring as much as $150.00 from collectors. Wondering if any of you folks collect them? I think they were talking about old gas station/gas company maps of different U.S. states.

Cheers;
Lefty

 

[wbraswell]

When it comes to ephemera (paper collectibles) it's condition, condition, condition. Of course, road maps will have creases, unlike posters where folds have an effect on value. It wouldn't surprise me that a pre-war, excellent map, from an oil company, might bring that much from a serious collector. There aren't many old ones left. A new one would come out every year, and most people just threw the old ones out.

 

[zzzippper]

Gas 20 cents a gallon, no self-serve, check your oil and tire pressure, a free drinking glass, and all the road maps you want. And now a $150 return as well?! Sigh...

 

[mtgianni]

I have a box full but don't collect them other than as a useful tool.

 

[feralmerril]

I am a map reading nut. I have many but never bought any as for the sake of collecting them. I do like seeing where old roads ran before the freeways in our locale etc. I have seen several old foundations with old gas pumps on trails! For instance, we live at cedar city utah and I-15 is a mile from our house. Cedar city is 45 miles north of St George. I well recall in about 1967 riding my harley from Salt Lake to Vegas. I remember going through St George but not Cedar City. I do remember stopping to read a road side historical marker about the Mountain Meadows Massacre but that is 40 miles to the west of us on a secondary road. There is just what looks like a old narrow trail off the freeway that you can see. Evidently the old main highway from vegas to salt lake, now I-15, actually ran 40 miles west of us. On top of that it seems lost history not long after the changes unless you ask a local that is at least 80 years old!

 

[TenTea]

White Line on the burning road
Rolling high, collecting maps.
Shades her eyes, a classic disguise
Rendezvous then she loves & laughs.

Angel City: Night Attack: Long Night

 

[wbraswell]

I don't have any maps that would be worth $150, but I have an old Texaco Texas highway map, I think from the 1950s. It's old enough that on the Dallas insert, Loop 12 goes around the outskirts of Big D, and I think Ft. Worth is a seperate insert. The fartherest east I-30 goes is Greenville.

 

[NCTexan]

If AARP says it... I don't believe it.

 

[boatme99]

I love old maps and nautical charts. I don't consider myself a collector, but I could easily become one if not careful.
I have two pieces hanging in the living room, one of which is a collectable piece I found in a local antique store.
While not original, ($14,000) it is a desired copy worth about $1,000+.
I got it for $50 and had to have it reframed with quality glass, so my total investment was about $140.

Old road maps are very cool, especially if you are familiar with the area.
I'm thinking of getting a few of some of the places I've lived.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I have a Sohio (Standard Oil of Ohio) road map of Ohio from early in the 50's. US 23 is the only divided highway in the state. It was in a box of "car stuff" in the trunk of a 1978 Futura we bought off the wife's grandmother in about 1987. We were camping in about 1990 when we found it, I needed a map to plot a our journey to the next campground and my wife says "Grandma always kept a map in the trunk." It was no help at all, but very entertaining.

In my Dad's office hung 2 original maps of a German region from about 1650. They are hand drawn and illuminated with Angels and Demons wearing mid-evil armor locked in combat. I'm hoping when the time comes, my dad's wife will let my brother and I each inherit one. At that point, I will be a collector, with a collection of 1. Ivan

 

[feralmerril]

Somewhere I have a silk map of the area of D day that my uncle had in his stuff. He was a glider guy in the 82nd. I guess they were issued to find your way out.

 

[sheepdawg]

Here's a 1944 U.S. Army road map of France. Found it in an attic when they were tearing down houses in the early 70s to make way for Interstate 40 through Memphis. It will show you how to get to Bastogne.

 

[rburg]

Wow, I ahead of the curve again. We've got all sorts of maps. Some we've been given, some we've bought and others we've traded for. I seem to like the prewar maps the best. My current favorite is a 1926 Colorado map. Its titled "Blazed Trails of Colorado" and then 1926. I've always considered posing the map alongside a model 1926 44. Oh, and probably a Heiser holster of similar vintage. I don't think I've got any great knives from that era. We've knocked around Colorado enough over the last 30 or so years that we've grown kind of familiar with some places. The 1926 map is good because the towns they show are currently regarded as ghost towns today. Same for railroad stops.

I've also got one from Wyoming of the same vintage. We haunt antique shows and its not too uncommon to find someone selling older maps. I've not seen anyone foolish enough to ask $150 for them. I had a great old map that showed railroads and even canals, but no roads in some places. I think I gave that to my brother, a railroad nut.

I've got a local city directory. Not phone, but occupation. Its got everyone of consequence along with their occupation. In the front its got a tissue paper map of this area with the streets and lots marked out. Of course almost all of the stuff has changed, including roads. I live on the river. I'm on the highside, but there's little between the other side guard rail and the water. But the old maps correctly show this property as being up on 2nd street. Front street is now submerged due to higher water levels and dam construction.

In just the few short years, google earth and mapquest have moved to newer pictures. These have been taken with foilage on the trees. The old ones, say 8 or 10 years back were winter aerial photos. Up on the hill behind me I could see some foundations on those. They pretty well correspond to where roads were 100+ years ago. Current streets don't follow that same pattern or spacing. Guess I've gotta go upstairs and assemble the old maps for reviewing. Well, that or sales to someone foolish enough to pay me big bucks for them.

 

[rburg]

OK, the results of a quick trip up into the "office" yields the following:

1936 Highway map of Wyoming. From the state highway department. Leslie A. Miller, Governor. Who even knew he was Governor back then!

1926 Blazed Trails "in" Colorado. Conoco Gasoline.

1923 Washington Oregon. Rand McNally. Has the $5.00 price sticker from some obscure antique show we must have gone to. Fool that I am, I probably paid full pop and didn't haggle.

1925 Blazed trails in Montana. The same general printing as the Colorado map from 1926.

1953-54 Arizona road map.

1936 Colorado road map. Prepared by the California company. Anyone here heard of the Cochetopa National Forest? Just asking. Its now the San Isabel NF.

Lots of "newer" maps, like the 1950s and 1960s. Kind of interesting I guess.

 

[Salty RI]

I don't collect them, but I'm sure I have a bunch of them around somewhere.

 

[Maddog 521]

I found a road atlas from the early 50's and it is rather unique. Things have sure changed since then.

 

[jughed440]

I like to collect 1800s era state maps, county plat books & atlases.
This map (1833) of Illinois shows Chicago in its beginnings (wish it would return to that era and start over), a trader's house, and indian territory. And it shows Iowa as "Sioux District". Neat to look at.