Cartographer makes a stop at Colo’s historic Café

Very interesting article about Mapping!

“…Conlin has been a cartographer since 1966; and, after being laid off from his job, decided to travel and document the full path of the highway. The trip will have to make some detours, though.

Pulling out a satellite photo taken from Google Maps, he points out an area where the original highway can’t be traveled. The photo clearly shows the path of the old highway as it runs directly into a lake, resurfaces on a small outcropping, only to disappear into the lake again, and then resurface once more on the opposite shore line.

Changing landscapes aren’t the only thing that makes following the Jefferson Highway a challenge. Consulting his map, he pointed out where the highway splits at Bethany, Mo., offering motorists a path straight south to Kansas City, or a slightly longer path west through Albany, then south to St. Joseph, before rejoining the eastern trail in Kansas City.

The split at Bethany is not unique, either. His map shows the highway as it was in 1913, running as far west as the current I-45 through Denison, TX; and also includes the 1926 routes, which lie almost as far east as the Mississippi River, a separation from the western trail of almost 300 miles. In its entirety, the map shows seven towns where the path forks…”
via Nevada Journal! – http://amestrib.com/articles/2009/11/12/nevada_iowa_journal/news/doc4afc4284bc11d451757616.txt