Lost in longitude or confused by contour lines? Want to know all the tips and tricks for getting the most out of your atlas? Curious if paper towns still exist? "Ask a Cartographer" is your opportunity to get the facts straight from the source. Tom Vitacco, Rand McNally Publishing’s Director of GIS is here to answer your burning questions, and geek out over fascinating map lore – one exploration at a time.
This week, we are discussing some interesting company stories from the past…
Question: Rand McNally has been around for a long time. What are your favorite stories from Rand McNally’s history?
Tom’s answer: Great question! Rand McNally has a long and storied history since the company started in the mid-1800s, and I am sure I can highlight some of my favorite cool and interesting stories from our past with narrative and photos. Honestly, this question can be split into multiple parts, so I will try to discuss a variety of historical topics in future posts as well since there are a lot of different things related to Rand McNally that you might not know about.
I will begin with a few stories or anecdotes that I heard about when I first started as a cartographer back in 1986, which I personally found interesting. The stories might not focus on cartography per se, but you might find them fascinating like I did, and all of them include maps of some kind.
Uniroyal One Lap of America Road Rally
I am old enough to remember the "Cannonball Run" movies which first came out in the late 1970s and ran through the 1980s. The movies were about wild and illegal cross-country driving races, known as a “road rally” at the time, and often included major movie stars as part of the cast. While the movies tended to focus on “illegal road races” across the United States, there were also legitimate corporate sponsored road rallies as well.
In May of 1986, the Uniroyal One Lap of America road rally kicked off in Detroit, Michigan, an 8-day, almost 8,400-mile trek through 32 states. Rand McNally sponsored a modified BMW 535i car, aptly named the “Road Atlas Warrior”, and provided maps and technology to the driving team for this rally.
Pictured: The “Road Atlas Warrior” custom BMW used in the Uniroyal One Lap of America road rally in 1986.
The car was outfitted with eight computers, two satellite tracking systems, a cell phone, video cameras, CB radios, and of course a brand new 1986 Rand McNally Road Atlas. The equipment cost alone was about $100K. Advanced cell phone and computer technology allowed for direct communication with the driving team and Rand McNally employees using an early version of MileMaker for routing assistance which helped orient the crew to the maps in the road atlas. The equipment was also used to test techniques and processes for the development of electronic map databases, plus computerized navigation systems for cars and commercial vehicles, which are the norm today.
There were 125 cars participating in this rally, which travelled nonstop around the country with only one 18-hour layover near Los Angeles. The rally was not really a race, but focused on navigational prowess and skills, as the competitors would drive to 50 different checkpoints in various states with penalty points given for each second they arrived early or late. They had to follow the rules of the road, as well as the instructions provided at each checkpoint. If a car got lost at any point during the rally, the chances of winning were greatly diminished, since the winner of the event was the team with the fewest penalty points. The prize was $10,000.
The three-person team driving the Road Atlas Warrior was led by D.J. Lane, a retired federal agent and veteran road rally enthusiast; Ivan Pato, who was the owner of the modified BMW, and Steve Smith, an automotive writer for the Dallas Times Herald. The team literally ate, slept, and used the bathroom within the car since it was outfitted with a refrigerator, portable toilet, emergency equipment and a device used to stop someone from rolling off the back seat while they rested.
When asked why he wanted to participate in the rally, D.J. said it was “the thrill of competition and the chance to be the best at something few people would even dream of trying.” I knew about the road rally concept back in the day and feel the use of a printed map with technology back in 1986 remains topical even today.
Pictured: Team leader D.J. Lane uses a cell phone to talk to Rand McNally staff for route guidance while checking the route on a road atlas map.
The Official Map of the Moon
I was five years old in 1969 when the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle touched down and the first humans walked on the surface of the moon. I remember my family discussing this tremendous achievement around that time as well.
Rand McNally celebrated this historic event by creating a new product called the "Official Map of the Moon." The map was printed at 46 x 62 inches, much larger than our current fold map size, so it was a big map when unfolded. The image below shows both sides of the map. One side was entitled “Modern Map of Outer Space” and depicted an artist rendition of the solar system and galaxy along with various tables and charts explaining topics such as distance, weight, and size. The other side contained an updated map of the moon, including five inset maps documenting the different Apollo missions and landing sites.
In my long career at Rand McNally as a cartographer, I have never had the opportunity to work on a map of the moon since we have not produced any titles like this since 1969 to my knowledge, although we do sell a few moon globes on our website still. I find this map intriguing and thought I would share it in case you have not seen the “moon map” before.
Charles Lindbergh Using Rand McNally Maps
Finally, I remember hearing stories about noted aviator Charles Lindbergh when I first started my career and how he often used standard Rand McNally maps during his flying career, especially in his early days as he flew mail for the U.S. Postal Service.
The map shown above is the 1930 Rand McNally Standard Map of Oklahoma with Air Trails. These maps were generally produced for tourists, aviators, commercial travelers, shippers, and used as a business reference map.
One unique feature of the maps is the inclusion of content such as air trails, airport beacon lights, seaplane ports, radio systems, and lines of equal magnetic variation. The image below shows the map legend for the Oklahoma map. Lindbergh used to hand draw flight courses on these maps using penciled lines to indicate 10-mile intervals, with some specific cumulative distances noted as well. To me, these were remarkable maps produced for consumers, but also with specific business requirements in mind, highlighting how Rand McNally was in tune with the needs of their customers even back then.
Thanks again for the question! As I mentioned, we will probably continue this question in future blog posts with more cool stories from the history of Rand McNally that hopefully you will find interesting and educational.
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