Rand McNally – Dale’s Daily Data

Suppose you go to the airport and you find out your plane hasn’t arrived yet.  And the airline can’t tell you exactly when it might get there and it finally arrives 14 hours late.  Then when you get to your destination – it’s not where you thought you were going to go – it’s more than a hundred miles away.

It doesn’t happen these days, but it did when you traveled by train in the 1850s.  People could only guess when the train was coming.  They never really knew within a day or two.  And when it did get there, you never knew if it had open seats.  If it was full - you’d have to stand or sit in the aisle, or ride in the baggage car.

And back then railroads often exaggerated the actual routes - sometimes by as much as 100 miles.  You could buy a ticket to Topeka and only get as far as Kansas City.  You’d have to walk or ride a horse the rest of the way.

It happened to a couple of guys who decided to do something about it.  They got to work on some accurate maps showing where things really were and how to get there.  And when they started selling those maps, people bought ‘em up like crazy.

And that’s how it all got started.  Their names were William Rand and Andrew McNally.  Together they established the most famous map company in the world – Rand McNally.

SOURCE: wikipedia