1948 Pictorial Tourist Map of Southern California and Arizona, Printed on a Napkin

Southwestern Arizona and the Coachella Valley - 50 years before Coachella!

A rare survival: a 1948 'BESTops Mapkin' of southern California and Arizona along the Mexican border, printed in two colors on a diner napkin. This 'Mapkin' represents a pictorial icon of the pre-interstate road trip.

A Closer Look

This map, screen printed on a diner napkin, focuses specifically on the region from Redlands, California, south to the Gulf of California, and west to Tombstone, Arizona. The Colorado River is shown centrally and is embellished with fishing (and mule train) imagery. The San Xavier Del Bac Mission in Tucson is portrayed, as is the Mormon Temple in Mesa. (The latter was less of a tourist draw than it was relevant personally to the LDS-affiliated creator of the map). Cacti abound. Some of them have musical notes springing from them, identifying them as a 'Pipe Organ Cactus,' this being one of the few places that species grows wild.

'Home Cooking That Will Please You'

The primary focus of this map - and every Mapkin - is on the area's restaurateurs. Amongst a charming array of iconic tourist destinations are a selection of recommended eateries to support hungry tourists. These are not only named and noted, but pictured, and accurately, preserving a record of the mid-century modern stylings of these roadside restaurants and cafes. Most of these locales are long gone - many disappeared in the wake of the Interstate Highway System, which bypassed many of these stopping points.

Pre-Interstate Highways

The map marks attractions along the main highways, prior to the development of the interstate system, which would bypass these towns altogether. These included Routes 60/70 and 89 between Redland and Phoenix, and Route 80 from Tucson through Yuma to El Centro, before leaving the map. Though not labeled, the map includes US 99, also known as the 'Golden State Highway' and 'The Main Street of California'.

Future Festival Land!

Route 99 joins route 60/70 at Indio, California, before turning west to Redlands. When this was printed, the main attraction of Indio (according to the Mapkin) was the charming Garrett Cafe. About fifty years later, Indio would become host to the annual Coachella music festival, a much larger draw.

Notable Destinations

Throughout the Mapkin are tourist attractions. The Salton Sea is depicted with a bikini-clad bather (and a rotund, balding fellow sitting in the water). The map notes the 'burping' mud pots at the south end of the lake, which remain a notable geological feature. (The future ghost town of Salton City had not yet been attempted and is not noted.) In Arizona, the Lost Dutchman's gold mine is depicted (despite its legendary location being lost)! This is one of the most famous lost treasure sites in America.

Publication History and Census

This mapkin was produced by the BESTops Travel Service of Salt Lake City, Utah. It is an early example of the company's work, numbered '17'; we are aware of an example numbered 147. The firm appears in the Salt Lake City directories of 1951 and 1952 under its two consecutive business names (BestOPS and Best Stops). That this example bears the former trade name tends to support an early date, as does the inexpert printing (probably done in the creator's basement or garage). Only one of a possible 143 Mapkins is listed in OCLC, and a sole example of Mapkin 106 is held by the Library of Congress. Given the purpose and general life expectancy of the diner napkin, as a form, the scarcity of these objects is perhaps unsurprising.

Cartographer

BestOPS (fl. 1948-1953), a.k.a. Best Stops Travel Service, was an American map-centered advertising company that arrived, and vanished, in the period following World War II (1939 - 1945) but preceding the c. 1955 explosion of the Interstate Highway System. The company's sole apparent product was a series of maps printed on diner napkins - hence, Mapkins - intended to promote roadside restaurants and cafes along the scenic routes to America's national parks and wonders. Thus, the mapkins capture the moment in American automotive history in which newly prosperous families took to the roads and ate their way across America, one diner at a time.

The company's address - always printed on the Mapkin - appears briefly to have been in Portland, Oregon, but then to have relocated to Utah. A few show an address in Provo, but the majority we have identified show one of several addresses in Salt Lake City; after 1951, mainly in the Beason Building. Most of the Mapkins can be dated, with reasonable confidence, based on the rapidly-changing landscape of the restaurant trade. Our research suggests that most were composed between 1948 and 1953.

The Salt Lake City directories of 1951 and 1952 are illuminating. The '51 directory includes an entry for BestOPS Travel Service, naming a Dorius E. Black as manager. In 1952, the directory names instead 'Best Stops Travel Service;' Black is listed as Vice President and Sales Manager, with its president listed as Lincoln C. White. Lincoln Carter White (1919 - 1986) was a successful Salt Lake City jeweler who had offices in the Beason Building corresponding to the addresses found on Mapkins after 1951. We suspect White not to have been the creator of the Mapkins, but an investor.

Dorius Ether Black (March 15, 1918 - June 29, 1985) is a better candidate. Before his wartime service in the navy reserves he had travelled abroad as an LDS missionary. We see no indication of his profession between 1946 and 1950; The 1950 Census listed him as separated, and living in Provo with his mother and siblings. His profession was listed as a salesman with 'Travel Service,' with two younger sisters working as stenographers for the same (we suspect that it is the sisters, Alma Jane and Ireta, who actually drew the Mapkins, while Dorius traveled, sold, and researched them). Up until 1951, BestOPS Travel Service operated via post office box addresses, in Provo, Salt Lake City, and briefly in Portland, Oregon. We suspect that Black started BestOPS and ran it out of his mother's house, with the assistance of his sisters, while he travelled around the country selling his mapkins to various diners en route. As a LDS missionary, he may well have been traveling as a proselytizer at the same time. In 1951 or 1952, he sold the business, or a share of it, to White: perhaps with an eye to providing a home for his fiancée, whom he would marry in 1952. White's involvement brought changes: more industrial printing methods, slicker branding, and a less-confusing business name - while as Vice President and Sales Manager, Black continued to travel and work his sales contacts. But before long, his travels for Best Stops brought him to Florida, and he decided to stay there - first in St. Petersburg, where he would begin work for a brokerage, and then to Orlando. Without Black, Best Stops appears to have ceased producing new Mapkins. White seems to have kept the business until it was struck from the Utah tax rolls in November 9, 1973, but while it appears likely that Best Stops would have continued trying to sell its back stock, we have seen no Mapkin that could credibly have been made any later than 1955.

We would like to extend our gratitude to Doug Misner, Library and Collections Manager of the Utah Historical Society, for his crucial assistance in identifying the individuals behind these fascinating pieces of cartographic Americana.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Original folds present. No soup.

References

Not in OCLC.