Map of the Great Plains Road

The National Highways Association (NHA) was established in 1911 to promote the development of an improved national road network in the United States. Under the slogan “Good roads for everyone!” the NHA advocated the building and permanent maintenance by the federal government of a system of 50,000 miles (some 80,500 kilometers) of highways. This map, issued by the NHA in 1915, shows the Great Plains Road, proposed by the Great Plains Road Association and endorsed by the NHA. The projected route runs from the U.S.–Canada border in Portal, North Dakota, to Brownsville, Texas, on the U.S.–Mexico border, a distance of 2,350 miles (3,782 kilometers). The notes and table at the bottom indicate the numbers of states, counties, and cities of different sizes traversed by the route and the population expected to be served. Besides issuing brochures and circulars aimed at convincing citizens of the need for a national road system, the NHA was a prolific producer of maps. Cartographic work was done at an office in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, where approximately 40 people were employed on the property of Charles Henry Davis (1865–1951), president and cofounder of the NHA. Davis believed that

Date

1915

Mapmaker / publisher

Jenkins, E. E

Place

the United States

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

map

Original size

1,024 × 3,841 pixels

Need maps for a whole project? Add Find Any Map to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 294204.