August-September 2023 • Nebraskaland 35
Navigating automobile trails required a good map to interpret telephone pole markers. Here's a sample of the 38 highways
shown on the 1918 Map of Nebraska with Names of Townships: 23. Black Hills Loop of the Lincoln Highway; 24. North Platte
Valley Highway; 25. Alliance, Chadron, Hot Springs; 26. Alliance, Angora, Bridgeport, Sidney; 27. Alliance, Broadwater, Oshkosh,
Sidney; 28. Bee Line (Missouri Valley, IA, to Fremont, NE); 29. Alliance, Scottsbluff ; 30. Alliance, Hay Springs; 31. Alliance,
Crawford, Hot Springs; 32. Lincoln Highway.
Installation of Nebraska's fi rst numbered highway markers, June 5, 1926. Old U.S. Highway 38 is now U.S. 6; old Nebraska 11 is
now U.S. 34. As roads improved and traffi c became faster, these small signs were replaced with larger ones that could be read
at a greater distance. NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION