Planning a road trip this summer? Taking along a GPS device? Check out this old-fashioned positioning system—
Huebinger’s Map and Guide for Omaha-Denver Trans-continental Route : with Supplement Showing Overland Trail Connecting Omaha-Denver Trans-continental Route at Lincoln with the Waubonsie Trail at Nebraska City (1911) from the
Hastings Public Library Collection in
Nebraska Memories.
If you are driving east and coming up on Harvard, Nebraska, (page 136) be on the lookout for the green-painted house on the left and then a school where you would turn north. Then, after you pass a pond on the left and a batten-board barn on the right, be ready for a right-turn to head east again. Of course, it helps if you have a navigator along to read off the landmarks.
Once you’ve made it to Harvard (480.4 miles from Denver and only another 151.9 to Omaha) , do you need a hotel for the night? Try Hotel Harvard—only two dollars on the American plan. Or perhaps you need a garage to top off the gas tank? Two choice are listed. Would you like more information about Harvard and its residents? Check out page 22.
Another book of maps in this collection,
Official Road Book of the Nebraska State Automobile Association (1913), includes a digest of states’ auto laws, telling motorists that in Nebraska, they must register with the Secretary of State in Lincoln for a fee of $2 per year and supply their own tags. And keep a light foot on the gas pedal because the speed limits are “10 miles an hour in business section; 15 miles in residence district; 20 miles elsewhere.”
Now, as you pull out of Harvard and head on down the road toward Omaha, keep an eye out for the danger sign ahead by the red barn …
Visit
Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from maps, photographs, negatives, postcards, lantern slides, books and other materials.
Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, or contact
Beth Goble, Government Information Services Director, or
Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.
