About

In 1986, Karen Jones-Williamson, the founder and owner, created the first Thurston County Street Atlas because the people of Washington State did not have a reliable map book of the South Sound area and were frustrated. She decided to fix the problem.

Karen was being inundated with calls and requests for a map book of Thurston County. She had received over 300 standing orders for a Thurston County map book; that is, if she ever found one. So one day, in 1987, completely frustrated, as yet another request for a Thurston County came from a company in Marysville, Washington, she jumped in the car and headed to Olympia to find a map, any map. After all, what were the businesses of Thurston County using to get around? After hours of searching, Karen discovered that the most current map of the region was a 1982 Thurston County Pocket Atlas. She began to research the origin of the map and followed the trail to a gentleman in California.

The next week, Karen rented a car and drove to California. She purchased the rights to the Thurston County Pocket Atlas from the original owners Grandson, and took with her the beginnings of her company’s journey to success. A week later, Karen felt the stress and overwhelming pressure of sorting through materials, out of scale maps, mismatched drawings, and tried to make a scale and grid that would make sense and was easy to read. Without the use of modern technology, the maps were made entirely by hand, on 20 x 24 sheets of paper with chart pack tape, and a typewriter. Every waking moment was spent in the car, painstakingly driving the streets of Thurston County, to ensure the most accurate information was put on the map pages of Thurston County. To her success, the first Thurston County Street Atlas hit stores on July 28, 1988. This was simply the beginning.

In the new few years, more county street atlases were created; 1991 Kitsap County , 1993 Mason County, and in 1996 Jefferson County, It was also in 1996 that the first “triple” map book was offered as KMT (Kitsap, Mason, Thurston), and in 1998 the first quad county map book called the KMJT was created, and it was placed it the local Costco stores.

After the 1998 update, Karen decided to take her map to a whole new level. With the help of some added employees, She converted all of her handmade maps to a digital format. This allowed composition and updating to be much easier. That same year, she followed the success of the KMJT with the release of a Lewis County Street Atlas. In the year 2000, a Five County Street Atlas (Kitsap, Jefferson, Mason, Thurston, Lewis) was created. In 2002, Karen reformatted and simplified her maps, again, by moving them to another software program that placed the counties in “real-world coordinates”.

Four years later, the company’s name was to A Good Map Company, just in time for the 2006 edition. And during this time, and due to customer demand, A Good Map Company released the Grays Harbor and Clallam County Street Atlases. With the addition of the two new counties, Karen reinvented her Five County Street Atlas, turning it into what we now call the Seven County Street Atlas. This met with great success!

Taking you back to the garage in 1986, Karen told a friend, “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked for a Thurston County….” Well, 21 years later, A Good Map Company now has 7 counties street atlases currently on the market and looks forward to putting out more county street atlases in the future. Karen prides her company on the fact she listens to her customer requests and opinions. A Good Map Company loves hearing from it’s customers.

A Good Map Company continues to go that extra mile by personally driving new streets, older streets and any discrepancies. This is in order to deliver the most comprehensive and accurate maps on the market today. And despite the advancements in technology and mapping, and the help of our GPS units, we feel it is that personal touch that sets A Good Map Company apart. Just like you, when we are on the road, we need A Good Map, too!