OpenStreetMap has a number of route relations across the United States that are tagged as auto trails (network=US:auto_trail). In theory, these relations are supposed to represent extant routes commemorating the historic route alignments. But in reality, most of these routes were mapped along present-day roads closely following the original alignments.
Or so I thought. Almost 60 of these routes cite route logs in the Automobile Blue Book. They’re concentrated mostly in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, plus a few in Ohio. As far as I know, the Blue Book had its own system of numbered routes independent of any officially marked and named routes, unlike the contemporaneous AAA maps. It’s analogous to how modern cycling and hiking guidebooks describe recommend routes that have little relation to any officially designated route.
The Blue Book routes were largely mapped by one user who hasn’t been active in OSM since 2013. Since they last edited, about 30% of the Blue Book citations have been removed, leaving unsourced route relations. I think these removals were motivated by a spurious warning in iD that was suppressed a month later.
This route was flagged in Slack and a note in OSM as potentially discardable historical information. I’m fairly confident that we could piece together the roads mentioned in these two routes’ logs. The landmarks mentioned in the logs would be very useful to map, and we should map the Dixie Highway as it was actually signposted. But should we map the Blue Book routes too?
![Cincinnati, Main & 5th Sts., P. O. on left. Go north on Main St. Cross 9th St. trolley and canal. Just beyond canal bridge, turn right on narrow street. 4-corners; meeting trolley, keep straight thru on Reading Road. Go under causeway, and at fork beyond, bear right with trolley. Keep straight ahead where tracks go left. 4-corners at garage; turn left downgrade. Cross RR at Bond Hill Sta. and pass Hamilton County Country Club on right 4-corners at county infirmary, turn left across iron bridge over canal. Cross RR. Carthage, 4-corners. Meeting trolley, turn right. Left-hand road; turn diagonally left, leaving trolley. Pass race track on right. Join trolley from right 8.0 and follow tracks on Springfield Ave. under RR. Thru edge of Wyoming 9.4 and across iron bridge, thru Woodlawn. Left-hand road at garage; turn diagonally left, leaving trolley. Rejoin tracks from right at 4-corners. Springdale. RR at Schenck Sta. and follow tracks on oiled gravel and macadam. Where trolley goes left, keep straight ahead on East Ave., across RR. [Hamilton City Map and Points of Interest, page 307.] End of avenue; meeting trolley, turn left on High St. Cross RRs. Hamilton, lst & High Sts., at court house. HOTEL-Hotel Hamilton, ½ blk, south of Court House Square. GARAGE-West Side Motor Co., 118 Main St. For diverging routes see Index Map, pages 16-29. Straight thru with trolley across long iron bridge. North B St., two blocks beyond bridge, turn right with trolley. Cross RR.](https://forum.openhistoricalmap.org/uploads/db6154/original/1X/77ca89ca7d248617f37d4ca8812170a129e4d8f2.jpeg)