Free oil company road maps disappeared in the 90's, but you can still pick up a free state or county tourism map or a free AAA map if a member. The building of highways became a major federal pork barrel item for Congress and Pennsylvania benefited more than most states in the 90's because a congressman from Altoona became head of the House Transportation Committee. The Pennsylvania Turnpike embarked upon a major expansion of toll roads especially in the western part of the state. New map vendors began to pop up to fill the road map void and a new fad in road maps at the end of the decade was to encase them in plastic. This was necessary because of all the coffee cup holders installed in new cars.

	1990 WELCOME TO CAMBRIA COUNTY AND JOHNSTOWN, published by Universal Advertising Associates, Cincinnati. This is a regional advertising map, the inside is filled with ads from local companies and a black & white road map of Cambria County.
	1991 PENNSYLVANIA-THE KEYSTONE STATE, from Visual Encyclopedia, copyright Marshall Penn-York Co., Syracuse. New map vendors began to jump into the game. This is a larger map than most old oil company ones, 42 x 29 inches, and the Map Image shows the cartography.
	1992 RAND MCNALLY ROAD ATLAS. The paucity of road maps in the 1990's is matched by the abundance of road atlases. Here is a typical example. Pennsylvania covers four pages in this 15 x 11 inch atlas.
	1993 OUTDOOR PENNSYLVANIA, distributed by the Alfred B. Patten Co., Doylestown; copyright Information America, Inc., Janesville, Wisconsin. Another new map vendor.
	1994 RAND MCNALLY ROAD ATLAS. A 128 page paperback road atlas. Pennsylvania again given four pages.
	1995 AAA. The map includes New Jersey per usual. Note the retail value, $4.00, ouch!
	1996 RAND MCNALLY. Another map sold direct to the public. This one cost $2.95. The Map Image shows Rand McNally's latest work.
	1997 MID-ATLANTIC ALLEGHENY HIGHLANDS, published by Michelin Travel Publications, Greenville SC. This is a regional map including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and northern Virginia and West Virginia. Michelin is a fixture in Europe and began selling travel publications in the US in a big way in the 1980's. This is a large map, 52 x 39 inches, printed on very good paper, and the Map Image shows the attractive layout.
	1998 PITTSBURGH TO CUMBERLAND TRAIL, published by the Allegheny Trail Alliance in 1996 and revised in 1998. The map shows the bike trail being built to run from Pittsburgh to Cumberland where it will connect to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal trail to go into Washington, DC. More recent and up-to-date maps of this trail can be found at Allegheny Trail Alliance.
	1999 PENNSYLVANIA, copyright S. G. A. Ltd. 1999 edition, published by Peter Heller Ltd., distributed by MapArt Publishing Corp. Another new map vendor. This map cost $5 and is 39 x 27 inches unfolded. It has a nice road layout that emphasizes the nodal connection of routes, rather like a subway map, with less regard than usual for relative scale and proportion, see the Map Image.
	2000 POCONOS AND THE NORTHEAST, published by the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau, Stroudsburg. This advertising map covers Wayne, Pike, Monroe, Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Susquehanna, and Wyoming counties. The map is from Carto, Cartographic Information Division.

Back to Top

Copyright 2000-2008 by Harold Cramer. All rights reserved.
Last revised: December 16, 2007.