While having my auto smogged last week, I discovered an estate sale and, to my delight, a stack of old maps. Now, some people love antique stuff, and I am no stranger to finding some amazing deals at estate and garage sales, but I am mostly limited to purchasing ephemera, or old paper products. Whether it’s magazines, maps, calendars, or old cheesecake prints, I sort through stacks of stuff looking for what I consider “serious” treasure. Well, at this sale I struck gold in vintage road maps, finding maps of Nevada, California, Oregon and Canada. Now, they weren’t exactly antique, as the oldest were from the 40s, but they are still a lot of fun to comb over. I thought I’d share the highlights of my map find!
Sierra County: Playground of the Sierras.
This map was hand drawn and lithographed. There was no date on it that I could find, but judging from the attire and the fact it predates zip codes, I would guess it is a 50s map.
Outside
Inside
Map detail
Closer… How cute is that??
I don’t know about you, but I always wear a skirt when fishing on the Yuba. 🙂
Mailing label
Artist and lithographer
California. The Golden Chain Council of the Mother Lode. No date. CA 1950s
This map was hand drawn and also lithographed by Creative Lithograph Co., 1946 Adeline St., Oakland 7, California and Cartography by William Wintle. This map also predates zip codes.
Outside with county information
Inside
Detail
Sacramento detail
One of the cutest Smoky the Bear drawings I have seen!
Mailing label, again without a zip code
Paradise, California Chamber of Commerce put out this lovely little pamphlet with not only a map but many photographs of the locals enjoying the beauty and history of their precious little berg. The population on this map shows the total at 8,000 people, contrasted with the 2011 census of 26,408. This brochure again portrays the classic Americana of Smalltown USA.
Love the chinchillas and the apple eating youth!
From this map, Paradise looks fairly large!
There are no dates on this map, nor zip codes. There is a place marker on the map with someone’s name, and the year of 1954.
The Bridgeport, California Recreational Area Directory in a lovely litho print. It is dated 1952 and has the compiled dates of 1928-1952. It is incredibly detailed and along the map edges are listings of all the resorts, restaurants, markets, bars and other facilities that any tourist might need. What I noted on this one is that all the phone numbers are one letter and 4 digits. B-8476. Amazing!
Detail
The Oregon Outdoor Guide is another historic brochure printed by the Travel Information Division. This beautifully photographed booklet provides picnic facilities, camp sites and historical markers found in OR. The map is dated 1958.
Stay tuned… I’ll post up the Nevada maps in the next couple of days! Any of you have any old maps laying around??