Wisconsin Official Highway Map Now and Then (Milwaukee)

2023 map:  Wisconsin Department of Transportation

1947 map:  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Wisconsin State Journal, 5/29/2023

or more than 100 years, Wisconsin’s official highway maps have helped motorists, and likely a few horse-drawn wagons, get from Westfield to Florence, Brodhead to La Crosse and Montello to Bayfield. 

Some of the earliest maps indicated surface type, like concrete, gravel, all weather earth roads, heavy clay earth roads and unsurfaced sandy roads. 

The 1935 map had a handy guide to explain stop signs and had six paragraphs on the “rules of the road.”