1906 Tate City Plan or Map of Des Moines, Iowa

This is a 1906 F. C. Tate city map of Des Moines, Iowa - one of the best early commercial maps of that city.

A Closer Look

Des Moines is covered in impressive detail, with streets labeled and city blocks numbered. Locations throughout are identified, including the Y.M.C.A., numerous companies (including the Iowa Brick Co.), Drake University, and the streetcar power plant. Parks are marked by diagonal lines, as are cemeteries. Several railroads (in addition to the Inter-Urban Railway) run through Des Moines, such as the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, the Chicago Great Western Railroad, the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway, and the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Saint Paul Railroad.

The Des Moines Inter-Urban Railway

Founded on November 28, 1899, the Inter-Urban Railway was an electric railway that first connected Des Moines to Colfax over a twenty-four-mile route that opened in early 1903. The railway provided both freight and passenger carriage, servicing coal mines and the popular Colfax health resorts. In 1906, the Inter-Urban opened the Beaver Valley Division, which ran from Des Moines to Herrold, Granger, and Perry. It also built a three-mile spur from Moran to Woodward. Besides passengers and freight, the trains also carried Wells Fargo Express and United States Mail. The Inter-Urban later served Camp Dodge, an important military base during World War I and World War II. The Inter-Urban's name changed to the Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway in 1922. During the 1930s and 1940s, the railway's revenues declined, and in 1946 the Colfax line closed. The Des Moines and Central Iowa went bankrupt in November 1946. It was purchased in 1949 by a New York scrap-iron dealer, who began running the railway with diesel engines instead of electric power, but he stopped passenger service and focused on freight. In 1954, the line from Granger to Perry was abandoned. The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad bought the remaining lines in 1968. Today, the Union Pacific operates over the freight tracks.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by F. C. Tate, printed by the Kenyon Printing and Manufacturing Company of Des Moines, Iowa, and published by the Commercial Club. This is the only known cataloged example, as it does not appear in OCLC or in any of the digitized records of archives in Iowa. However, this map is referenced in the application to make the Highland Park Historic Business District at Euclid and Sixth Avenues part of the National Register of Historic Places.