National Map Company’s Map of Texas…, Indianapolis: National Map Company, 1920, Map #10750, Map Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.

National Map Company’s Highway Map of Texas, 1920

Maps such as this one, created in the 1920s by the National Map Company of Indianapolis, were important tools for navigating the rapidly expanding highway system, drawn here in bold red lines.

Some of the densest highway networks in Texas, marked by bold red lines, fed from all over central Texas into Dallas and Fort Worth, which had become an important commercial center.

Many of the trails and roads linking frequently traveled routes had their own pictorial identity, seen in the chart at the top. Listing named highways of Texas alongside their individual pole markers, drivers could easily recognize the route they were on by its signage.

Distinct signage on various highways combined words, numbers, symbols, and colors to help drivers immediately recognize the roads they traveled.

The inset at the bottom left shows the major highways for the rest of the country, decades before the modern federal interstate highway system began construction in 1956.

[left] In the absence of a federal Interstate Highway system, the United States in the 1920s relied on a network of connected regional highways. [right] Early highways in Texas were naturally most prevalent in highly populated areas; however, their reach into West Texas connected distant oil boomtowns to the larger cities back east and lowered the cost of commerce and transportation.

This handy chart included information on registration costs, driver’s licenses, license plates, and local speed limits. For example, in Texas, registering a vehicle cost $0.35 per horsepower, the minimum driving age was eighteen years old, and the “open country” speed limit was 25 miles per hour.

At the top left, travelers could compare the fees each state charged for different types of licenses.

After the oil boom of the early twentieth century, the need for reliable, efficient transportation in Texas became extremely important.

The Texas State Highway System was created when the Texas Highway Department was established in 1917. That year a total of 26 highways were identified covering almost 9,000 miles.

Ten years later that number had doubled, with 18,000 miles of state highways connecting remote oil boomtowns with major cities, making travel across the massive state much easier and getting product to market, quicker.

A reproduction of this map can be purchased on the GLO website.