Department of Transportation

Highway maps, 1910-

View history of records' creator.

Schedule Description

The maps contain information pertaining to the types and locations of highways, cities and towns, points of interest, historical sites, state and national parks, and lakes and rivers.

Scope and Content

Highway maps contain information pertaining to the types and locations of highways, cities and towns, points of interest, historical sites, state and national parks, lakes and rivers. Maps were issued by the Utah State Road Commission or the Department of Highways until 1975 when the Department of Transportation was created.

While early years reflected the growing need to identify and provide information on roads for automobile drivers, by the late 1930s one of the primary uses of the official highway map was tourism. This is reflected in larger sizes, colorful elements, and photographs (initially in one color, later full color). The postwar period saw a marked increase in tourism as a major industry in Utah. This trend may have reached its zenith with the hosting of the 2002 Winter Olympics in branding and tourism materials, including the highway map. It was also at this time that the paper map began to decline in competition to navigation systems powered by GPS.

Holdings for this series are strongest from the 1930s up to about 1990, with a few scattered maps earlier and later. The Information Division of the Department of Highways issued a bound set covering 1923-1963 (see box 1), of which the Archives has three additional copies, in addition to remaining maps not bound (box 2).

Notes

Microfiche holdings require staff assistance due to fewer reference copies. Handle masters under supervision.

According to an inventory provided by the agency in 2016, the Archives is missing maps issued in 1992, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2011, and 2013.

Aperture added Sept. 2011 by Rebekkah Shaw as part of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant for the Microfiche Backlog Project. (#NAR10-RB-50086-

Microfiche processed by Rebekkah Shaw under the National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant to the Utah State Archives and Records Services for the Utah Microfiche Backlog Project (Grant No.: NAR10-RB-50086-10). July 2010 - December 2011

Holdings in paper were processed and the description expanded by Gina Strack in April 2016.