"A country that runs on oil can't afford to run short," corporate ad inside a Standard Oil of Illinois map of Wyoming, 1973

I have been into maps, especially "gasoline station" maps since I was a child.  Living around the corner from gas stations in Detroit, I would pick them up.  You could even order them and they'd mail them to you.

Gas station "stuff" -- collectibles -- is referred to as petroliana.  Now I am interested in ephemera, paper goods like maps, magazines, advertisements, newspapers, tourism brochures, etc., especially those items that illustrate points about land use and transportation planning.

I always mention the book chapter, "Transportation and Urban Form: Stages in the Spatial Evolution of the American Metropolis," and I think a lot about the way automobiles were marketed and about "vintage" gas station maps and how other elements of gasoline distribution were organized and marketed (clean restrooms were a hallmark of Texaco ads for decades) illustrates the phases of development of the automobile-centric land use and transportation planning paradigm in the US.

-- "Gasoline dependent sprawl" 
-- "Automobile interests don't favor mass transit"
-- "Oil dependence | The US as a Petro-state and gasoholic | and war"

Maps and brochures promoting "tourism" illustrate the development of the "Recreational Automobile Era," while the commoditization of gasoline marketing, the de-emphasize on promoting tourism on the part of gasoline station brands, dropping branded maps, etc. illustrates how the automobile became both commonplace and dominant.  

I was looking at maps at a flea market yesterday, and this ad "forced" me to buy the map.  It's a photo, not a scan.

It's a great illustration of the costs of gasoline dependence.