In 1911, the “go-to” book of road maps was the leather-bound Automobile Blue Book. Photo provided. (Photo Provided)

It’s 1911…and You Are Going Motoring

Picture this: You’ve just loaded up the family in the new 1911 “Tin Lizzie” and are going to Zanesville for a few days. How do you get there through the maze of broken roads and dead ends?

One thing for sure, the best source of up-to-date roadmaps is the Official 1911 Automobile Blue Book. In this particular case Volume 4, “The Middle West,” will do.

According to the book, the trip to Zanesville “should not be attempted in wet weather. Under settled weather conditions it is, however, a very beautiful trip with fair and natural roads and scenery. “Caution,” it warned, “should be used for many dangerous railroad crossings.”

All told, the first leg of the journey is 77.1 miles and you can’t get that kind of accuracy with today’s maps [this was written in 1970].

Starting at the [Wood County] courthouse at 3d and Market Sts. The book says to “go west on 3rd St. with trolley. Ann St.; turn right – trolley turns left- going under RR.”

A half-mile from the starting point, you come to a fork with a monument in the center [this would be the intersection of Ann St. and Murdoch Avenue, where the old windmill service station was located.] ; “bear left, picking up trolley onto Murdoch St., crossing 2 RRs.” 2.8 miles later, another fork appears [this was probably the intersection of current 36th Street and Murdoch Avenue.] and you bear “bear left, leaving telephone poles, swinging right with the road, passing Parkersburg Machinery Co. …” [The traveler is now at current, Murdoch Avenue and Lakeview Drive.]

Several twists and turns later you travel past Boaz and continue upriver to “the end of the road.” There you turn left, crossing a “long toll bridge (toll 30 cents)” – the same Marietta-Williamstown bridge there today. “Immediately after leaving the bridge, turn sharp right one block and you’re in Marietta. That’s a total of 14.1 miles so far. And you are on your way.

As was mentioned, distances between two points are listed to the tenth of a mile, so the driver needed a pretty good way to measure how far his car had gone, in order to avoid turning off on the wrong track.

Supplying this need were several types of speedometers advertised in the Automobile Blue Book, along with tires, tire chains, hotels, and automotive magazines.

Perhaps the most interesting of ads was that for the Woodworth Treads, treads made of chrome leather studded with steel rivets.

“If you place Woodworth treads over good tires, and keep them well inflated,” it said, “You need not think of your tires again until the treads are worn out.”

“Think of the pleasure of touring when you know you are prepared for any possible kind of roads, when you know that nails, glass, broken stones, ruts or rocks cannot injure your tires.!” Just think.

The Parkersburg News,

March 22, 1970

By Bob Johnson of The News staff

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.