1946 Official Road Map of Minnesota

Stats:

Size: 38" x 31.75" unfolded, 9.5" x 4" folded

Scale: 1 Inch = 12 Miles

Conditions as of: May 1, 1946

Commissioner of Highways: M.J. Hoffmann

Governor: Edward J. Thye

Map Type: Department of Highways (1940-1950)

(Mouse over the map to see the reverse side)

Previous Year (1942) | Maps Home | Next Year (1947)

Comments:

• The 1946 map was the first issued since 1942 due to wartime conditions.
• The front of the map is virtually identical to the map issued in 1942.
• The 1946 map was the first to have insets of towns other than the Twin Cities and Duluth. These insets replaced the colorful montage of photos on the back of the 1941 and 1942 maps. The insets were arranged over a large regional map of the highways leading to Minnesota. For more on these insets, see below.
• The index of historical sites has been removed from the back of the map.
• A large city-to-city mileage finder has been added to the back of the map. This type of mileage finder was last seen on the map issued in 1933.

The city insets introduced in 1946 were in a very different format than the Twin Cities and Duluth insets in use since 1940; they were drawn at a much larger scale, and trunk highways were represented by thick red lines. Interestingly, the insets were arranged geographically (towns in southern Minnesota at the bottom of the map, etc.) Towns were picked on the sole criteria of having a population of over 10,000 people. This included South St. Paul, even though it was already technically included on the Twin Cities inset . The 12 towns included were as follows: Albert Lea, Austin, Brainerd, Faribault, Fergus Falls, Hibbing, Mankato, Rochester, St. Cloud, South St. Paul, Virginia, and Winona.

At right is a close up of the Faribault inset introduced in 1946. Note how Highway 218 is erroneously shown as a US route (it was a state route north of Owatonna until being replaced by Highway 3 in 1961). Also note the less than PC name for the state school on the southeast side of town.