1980 St. Augustine, Florida Tourist Train Map

A delightful c. 1980 pictorial map of St. Augustine, Florida, prepared for St. Augustine Trains, highlighting landmarks and tourist attractions.

A Closer Look

Oriented towards the east, the map covers central St. Augustine, parts of Vilano Beach, and Anastasia Island. Historical sites, such as the 'Old Fort' (Castillo de San Marcos) and cathedral, are illustrated, along with more modern structures like the Bridge of Lions and the St. Augustine Lighthouse. Other tourist attractions, such as an alligator farm and the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park are also indicated. Blue stars mark the sightseeing train's stops.

St. Augustine Sightseeing Trains

Though not trains in the sense of a railway, sightseeing trains have been a fixture of St. Augustine's tourism industry for decades. Almost certainly derived from the city's connections to the Florida East Coast Railway, multiple companies have operated trolleys or train cars pulled by tractors mocked up as steam locomotives. The company whose services are advertised here, St. Augustine Trains, Inc., was founded in 1953 and operated for decades before being acquired in 2004 by Ripley's, which still operates 'red train tours' in St. Augustine.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by an unknown cartographer for St. Augustine Trains, Inc. It is undated, but from the style and the company's 7-digit phone number can be assumed to date from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. It was designed for folding and mailing, though this example was never addressed or stamped. The OCLC notes four institutions holding this map: the Library of Congress, the University of Florida, the University of Miami, and the University of South Carolina.