How Do I Report an Error in an Issue of CHPW? :-)

[cahwyguy]

[I'm putting this here, because I don't know where else to put it.]

This morning, I was perusing a recent issue of California Highways and Public Works, the May-June 1966 Travel Issue ( https://cdm16436.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16436coll4/id/9055/rec/360 ). On Page 15 (PDF Page 17) there is an image labeled as "The new Los Angeles Music Center". Now, I'm familiar with the Music Center. That's not the Music Center -- That's LACMA (compare to https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/collections/america/los-angeles-county-museum-of-art ).

So, how do I report an error in CHPW?

(Seriously, and to tie this to roads, this issue has some nice Gousha maps of the state that show county numbered routes as of the mid 1960s)

Daniel

[Max Rockatansky]

I wasn't even aware that there was a travel oriented version of the CHPW.  I was always under the impression it was just the engineering oriented variant and nothing else.  That kind of reminded me of the Arizona Highways Magazine. 

[cahwyguy]

I think it was a special themed issue, but I noticed that near the end of its run, CHPW did get more travel oriented, probably in competition with Arizona Highways.

[Max Rockatansky]

I kind of wish that they had kept up with a publication like this.  I used to have a stack of Arizona Highways and for the most part I always thought they were interesting.  The general engineering stuff was occasionally tossed in for good measure from time to time.  It obviously had an audience and I would have to think it could have been a good way to keep the CHPW going a little longer.  Granted, I kind of think some of the Gribblenation articles have more or less morphed into something akin to a Quasi California variant of what would be Arizona Highways.  I've tended to notice they our articles that lean more towards travel destinations than either engineering or history tend to draw much more readers. 

[sparker]

I think it was a special themed issue, but I noticed that near the end of its run, CHPW did get more travel oriented, probably in competition with Arizona Highways.

From what I understood back in '66, the shift from detailed info/engineering articles to "puff pieces" aimed at tourists was strictly a PR move.  Someone at DOH had extrapolated that public and academic libraries, where most of the public had access to CHPW, could be augmented by distribution to AAA offices, rest stops, and travel agencies -- but the historic content was too "dry" and technical -- so it, as mentioned above, became a "bargain basement" analog to Arizona Highways.  Apparently the aim was to eventually sell advertising from lodging chains, points of interest, road services, etc.  The experiment lasted all of the 6 issues of 1966; the incoming Reagan gubernatorial administration, as part of a general cost-cutting move, simply and unceremoniously cancelled the publication with the January/February 1967 issue.  I only found out about that because the Glendale public library posted a notice at the time in the shelving area that publication was to cease.  But since the previous year didn't really contain much in the way of information -- the mention of new alignment adoptions or revisions, prominent over the previous 50+ years, was relegated to a couple of pages at the rear of the issues; so its value to this budding roadgeek rapidly diminished until the end. 

[Max Rockatansky]

I noticed that Sign County Routes B1 and R1 make an appearance of those Goshua Maps.  I wonder why the CHPW resorted to using Goshua Maps of all things?  Traditionally they just used snippets of actual Division of Highways Maps.

[sparker]

I noticed that Sign County Routes B1 and R1 make an appearance of those Goshua Maps.  I wonder why the CHPW resorted to using Goshua Maps of all things?  Traditionally they just used snippets of actual Division of Highways Maps.

The DOH started using Gousha cartography for official state highway maps about the same time as the switchover to the "publicly accessible" CHPW format; I was on the mailing list to receive updates of official maps, and was surprised to see Gousha design on the edition released in late 1966.  Not surprising, considering that Gousha's format was considerably more colorful (albeit with less legible detail) than the old black & white DOH maps prior to then.  But the DOH "idiom" of dotted rectangles for formally adopted routes and small circles for unadopted corridor concepts was transferred directly to the Gousha cartography -- at least that highly useful info base was retained!