The maps are part of the university’s Center for Arkansas History and Culture and were a 2017 gift by Union Pacific, which inherited the maps when it took over the MoPac in 1982.
Created in 1917 and 1918, the maps document such roads as the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad, and the Cairo & Fulton.
Besides showing mile-by-mile trackage from Moark, Ark., to Texarkana, Ark., the vintage maps depict railroad property boundaries, bridges, and structures along the rights-of-way.
“These large, unique maps include details that give us insight into Arkansas’s economic and cultural networks,” says Deborah J. Baldwin, associate provost of the university’s Collections and Archives. “The level of detail provides a rich portrait of where and how Arkansas towns developed in the early 20th century.
Given each map’s large size — 4.5 feet by 2 feet — and brittle condition, university officials had decided to digitalize the collection as soon as possible.
With funding from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage, the digitalizing project was completed earlier this year.
The digital maps are available online.
The original maps reside at the Center for Arkansas History and Culture in Little Rock.
My alma mater. Great job UALR!!.
Ditto! Going thru family archives has revealed many rr treasures which plan to be forwarded appropriately..
This is why railroad records should be preserved.
These maps are great! For instance, check out this map on page 5;
Cairo and Fulton Railroad: Right of way and track map for North Little Rock
Val maps are wonderful things.