Kansas maps provide opportunities for education and exploration

By Tom Hein,
Wichita Metro Public Affairs Manager 

Current State Official State 

Transportation Map

Maps are historical references that are both interesting and informative. Besides the biennial State Transportation Map that is widely available, KDOT produces specialty maps for traffic counts, bicycles, aviation, rail, bridges, interchange designs, pavement condition, roadway functional classification, cities and counties, school districts and more.

Current Kansas Bicycle Map

Zoe Manderson, co-founder of Alpaca Travel, a travel and tourism website, wrote, “For some people, maps awaken an insatiable desire to explore, reminding them that life is a big adventure and there is so much to see.”

A cartophile is someone who appreciates and enjoys looking at maps. The KDOT website has such a large variety of maps that someone who enjoys reading them could spend hours traveling through the map list.

For instance, a great map to review is the 1918 Kansas State Roads map. It charts the Cannonball Highway, Rock Island Highway, the Bee Line, the Blue Line, the Golden Belt, Midland Trail and the King of Trails.

Kansas State Roads Map from 1918

The KDOT map website also includes the Kansas Memorial Highways, Bridges and Interchanges map, which shows highways that have been dedicated to the memory of an individual or group, like the Amelia Earhart Memorial Highway. This map also identifies the Submarine Veterans Memorial Highway, Home on the Range Highway, Turkey Wheat Trail Highway, Prairie Parkway, The Road to Oz and the Lewis & Clark Expedition Route.

Photo of a map of historic sites and trails.

And one of the most interesting maps, available in photo form at this link, is the map of trails and historic sites. This map is located at one of our many rest areas. It pinpoints the geographic center of the 48 states, Castle Rock, Monument Rocks, Point of Rocks, Pawnee Rock, the George Washington Carver homestead site, the highest point in Kansas, battle sites, rivers and major creeks. It also shows the Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, Chisholm Trail, Kiowa Trail, Great Osage or Black Dog Trail, The Pony Express route, Coronado’s 1541 route and many other historical sites.

Do you want to explore these maps for yourself? Visit  http://www.ksdot.org/maps.asp to see the entire list of great maps. Beware: you may lose track of time and you just might become a cartophile.