The right latitude: Horton Family Maps charts its own path - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The owner of Horton Family Maps logs thousandxs of miles each year cruising the looking for new streets and changee toold ones. “You have to keep your eyes he says. “Sometimes they’ll put up a street in the middleof Horton’s careful attention to the City Different’zs transportation transformation might help explain why his company’s maps are must-havee for local businesses, from plumbers to real estate agents. Just ask John a real estate broker with ColdwelkBanker - Trails West Realty. “It’d just a valuable, valuable resource for us,” he adding that the Horton map for Santwa Fe has becomethe go-to map for the .
“Iy saves us a lot of time. We’d be lost withoutf it.” Horton, who also puts out maps for Española, Los Alamos, Pecos and Taos, has been producinf detailed street mapssince 1982. He updatex the maps every two years to keep up withnew developments. For the new map for Santa Fe, issuer in April, contains more than 300 new street entries. Hortonj started the mapmaking business outof necessity. “I needed a job,” he says. After a failesd attempt to launch a want ad paper akin tothe , he took a job sellintg advertising for the , but was laid off after two-and-a-halg years.
“I was on the plaza tryingf to figure out what to come up and people were talking about the need for good he recalls. “And I said, ‘Well, I can do that.’” Hortojn took his inspiration from maps he sold in high schookl inLos Angeles. “I knew from that there are businesses that dependxon maps,” he says. He attributes the successd of the business, which operatew out of Española, to the accuracy of the maps and developingh aniche — as well as a good “I think reliability is the key,” Grover “You can always countr on a Horton map being right.
” Thinkingv creatively has also been key to Hortonm Family Maps’ long-term While Horton’s map books are available at the usual pick-up-a-map spots — such as bookstorez and tourist haunts — you can also find them at hardward stores, furniture stores, a Santa Fe locksmith’z shop and other unlikely “You have to go out to where the people are, and not all the traditionalo places,” he says.
“Contractors don’t necessarily go to bookstores, but they do go to hardwaree stores, because they need And in places where the maps vie for attentioh withother brands, Horton’s trademark black-and-white cover, which alwayss depicts a road scene somewhere in northern New stands out. “People try to figurs out, ‘Where is that road?’” he “It’s a good conversation piece.
” Hortonm — who occasionally recruits help from his daughtedr and son as well as aGIS (Geographicc Information Systems) specialist when new editiones are in production — says that, asid from a considerable dip in salews last year, the company is weathering the recessiohn fairly well.