Best Stops Travel Service

[EPHEMERA] Map-kins - promotional maps printed on napkins; Five individual Map-kins

Utah: Best Stops Travel Service, 1948-1953. BestOPs, later operating as Best Stops Travel Service, was an American Advertising firm specializing in cartographic ephemera. The company emerged in the immediate postwar period - after World War II (1939-1945) but prior to the mid-1950s expansion of the Interstate Highway System - and appears to have had a brief yet distinctive presence. Its only documented product is a series of promotional maps printed on diner napkins, created to highlight roadside restaurants and cafés along scenic routes to major national parks and tourist destinations. These so-called "Map-kins" capture a transitional moment in American automotive culture, when increasingly affluent families embraced long-distance travel and engaged with a rapidly developing roadside dining landscape.

Although conceived as advertising rather than commemorative objects, the Map-ins now function as valuable historical records. The establishments they depict were active at the time of printing, and their inclusion appears to have been based, at least in part, on direct visits. As such, the Map-kins record not only geographic location but also house specialties, providing insight into mid-century roadside cuisine as well as contemporary marketing practices.

Production was carried out using halftone printing by the Map-kin division of Best Stops Travel Service, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The firm is listed in Salt Lake City directories for 1951 and 1952 under its successive names, BestOPs and Best Stops. Given their disposable format and intended use, the relative scarcity of surviving examples is unsurprising.

The printed address - consistently included on the Map-kins - suggests an initial presence in Portland, Oregon, followed by relocation to Utah. A small number of examples bear a Provo address, though most list one of several Salt Lake City locations, particularly after 1951. Individual Map-kins can often be dated with some precision based on the rapidly changing restaurant landscape they document; current evidence indicates that the majority were produced between 1948 and 1953.

This is BestOPs Map-kin
13.25 x 13 inches
A 1948 Map-kin depicting southern California and Arizona along the Mexican border, focusing on the region from Redlands, California, south to the Gulf of California, and east to Tombstone, Arizona. The Colorado River occupies a central position and is illustrated with fishing scenes and mule-train imagery. Notable landmarks include the San Xavier del Bac Mission near Tucson and the Mormon Temple in Mesa - the latter likely reflecting the personal interests of the map's LDS-affiliated creator rather than its touristic prominence.

Route 99 is shown joining U.S. Routes 60/70 at Indio, California, before turning west toward Redlands. At the time of publication, Indio's principal attraction, according to the Map-kin, was the Garrett Cafe. In later decades, the city would gain prominence as the site of the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

This is a BestOPs Map-kin
13.25 x 13 inches
A 1948 Map-kin depicting portions of Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, presenting a pictorial pre-Interstate road journey. The map spans from Las Vegas (here misspelled "Los Vegas") and the Grand Canyon in the south to the Great Salt Lake and Mount Timpanogos in the north.

In Salt Lake City, the "Do Drop Inn Cafe" is prominently featured, advertising double hamburgers alongside the slogan "We Never Close." The small, eight-booth establishment was operated by Pete and Arline Harman, who replaced it with a larger building in 1951, renaming it Harman's Cafe. That same year, a meeting with Harland Sanders would lead to a pivotal franchise partnership associated with the early expansion of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

This is a BestOPs Map-kin
13.25 x 13 inches
This 1952 Map-kin depicts northern Arizona, with particular emphasis on the Route 66 corridor from Gallup, New Mexico, to Barstow, California. The coverage extends from Phoenix northward to the Grand Canyon. BestOPs had previously issued a map of this region in 1948; the present example features an updated roster of restaurants and reflects a more pronounced emphasis on Route 66 as a primary artery of travel and promotion.

The Grand Canyon forms the northern border of the map, but it is not alone in depicting the natural wonders to be found. The Kaibab Forest appears near the middle of the map, which also shows the Sunset Crater, and the Mojave Desert. The Map-kin features the San Carlos Indian Reservation. In a note of "humor" that fails today, the Hopi Indian Reservation is marked with a cartoonish Indian on a pogo stick.

This is a Map-kin of Best Stops
13 x 13 inches
A circa 1953 Map-kin depicting central Colorado, northeastern New Mexico, western Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle. The map centers on U.S. Route 87 (Denver, Colorado, to Childress, Texas) and U.S. Route 54 (Hooker, Oklahoma, to Nara Visa, New Mexico), which intersect at Dalhart, Texas. It promotes a network of diners, courts, and lodges along these routes, emphasizing the region's cowboy heritage and its appeal to mid-century motorists, tourists, and sportsmen.

Route 54 is traced from Nara Visa in New Mexico, Intersecting 87 at Dalhart, then running northeast through Stratford, Texhoma and then into the Oklahoma Panhandle (as 54/64) to Guyman and Hooker. State route 385 is not pictured: it would not be so named until 1959; this map also predates the Interstates, and so neither I-40 (constructed in 1957) nor I-27 (constructed 1969) appear.

This is a Map-kin of Best Stops in "Colorful Colorado"
13 x 13 inches
A circa 1953 Map-kin depicting central and southeastern Colorado, extending eastward into Kansas, and focused on U.S. Routes 24 and 50 from Glenwood Springs to Garden City, Kansas. Issued on the eve of the Interstate era, it documents a roadside landscape that has largely disappeared. Many establishments it promotes - such as the Garden Café at 32 North Main in Garden City and the Uptown Café and Court in Syracuse - no longer survive. Among those identified, only the Thunderbird Inn appears to remain in operation.

Colorado's gold rush history is noted: the spot near Salida where gold was discovered in 1891, and the Cripple Creek Gold Camp appear. Pike's Peak and Mount Elbert are depicted, as are the petrified forests. Colorado's oil fields and steel mills also make an appearance, as well as Kansas' wheat fields and the buffalo herd of Finney State Reserve. Item #5027

Price: $1,850.00