Old road maps and towns time forgot

Joined
Jun 8, 2022
Messages
5,095
I posted this in another thread, but possibly it deserves its own thread. I found that University of Alabama has archived a ton of old maps, including old road maps by state.

http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/us_states/states.html

I have used the old maps to retrace routes around the state and see some old towns that time forgot. In South Carolina from the late 1880's to just after the interstates came through it was all about cotton and textiles. A lot of these old towns were not only on the way to important cotton trading areas but also had their own cotton and textile mills. Its interesting to me to retrace some of these old routes and see how some have survived and thrived - like where I live which is now home to many modern manufacturing facilities, or see the ones that have mostly been forgotten.
 
Wow! I just spent 20 minutes that I didn't have browsing old Chicago street maps.

What a great rabbit hole for a rainy day. Thanks for posting the link.
 
Back
Top