Archives West Finding Aid

The Oregon Transportation Maps were prepared by the U.S. Public Roads Administration and document transportation in Oregon, immediately preceding and during World War II, in 1940 and 1944. The collection consists of two sets of 12 maps covering the full state of Oregon, issued in 1940 and 1944. The maps are at a scale of 1:250,000 (1 inch = 4 miles). The maps depict highways and other roads, railroads, air lanes, airports, canals, dredged channels, and ferry routes. For highways and roads, the maps indicate if they are federal; state; or forest, park, or public. The type of pavement is indicated for each road or highway. Five different pavement types are shown on these maps -- (1) unimproved; (2) earth, graded and drained; (3) gravel, traffic-bound, selected materials, sand-clay; (4) processed types, surface treatments, water-bound macadam; and (5) brick, cement-concrete, asphaltic-concrete, bituminous macadam.

In addition to transportation networks, the maps depict cities and towns with a population key. They also denote the locations of county seats. Natural features such as lakes, streams, and mountains are also included with their names; the extent of national and state forests, Indian reservations, and other land reserves are shown.