End of US highway 28

View a map showing this route.

Photo credits: Chris Elbert; me

Approx. time period East terminus West terminus
1926-1937 Ontario, OR Florence, OR
1937-1952 Ontario, OR Eugene, OR

US 28 was among the original 1926 routes. At its zenith, it ran from one end of Oregon to the other. Its east end was at US 30 in Ontario; these photos show modern signage from the perspective of US 28's historic terminus. Below we're looking east on Idaho Avenue:

me, Mar. 2001

About a half-mile ahead is I-84 interchange 376, and a mile ahead is the Snake River, which forms the boundary between OR and ID in this region. As you can see, Business US 30 goes left and straight from the intersection ahead (Oregon Street). Prior to I-84's construction, that was mainline US 30, so US 28 ended at that intersection. The sign is shown close-up below, along with its more recent replacement:

me, Mar. 2001 Elbert, July 2010

(Interesting how it referred to I-84 as simply "Freeway". Maybe that's because they were skeptical that its name might change again: it used to be called "I-80 N".) More to the point, though: you can see how OR hwy. 201 used to be routed through this intersection. It's possible that US 28 followed the same routing as what later became OR 201... if that's the case, then the photos above were taken from the perspective of a driver at the historic endpoint of US 28. But Chris suggests that US 28 traffic may have stayed on SW 4th Avenue, and then turned north on Oregon. US 28 still would've ended at this intersection, but that routing would've brought traffic through the main business district. If so, then the photo below shows modern signage at the historic endpoint:

Elbert, July 2010

That's looking north on Oregon. Below we're heading west on Business 30, which used to be mainline 30:

Elbert, July 2005

Elbert, July 2010

At the upcoming intersection, US 30 turned right, and the east beginning of US 28 was either to the left on Oregon or straight ahead on Idaho (the "201 South" sign was in the wrong place - it should've been down in the "College" and "Vale" part of the sign). The shot below shows the signage posted at the intersection itself:

me, Mar. 2001 Elbert, July 2010

I-84's exit 374 is about 1.5 miles to the right. At the time of that photo, the directions for OR 201 were correct on that sign. However, thanks to a bypass completed in about 2003, OR 201 doesn't come through here at all anymore... but these signs weren't changed until 2009 or 2010. One more perspective: this is looking south on Oregon:

Elbert, July 2005 Elbert, July 2010

Eastbound US 30 turned left here, and US 28 began either straight ahead or to the right.

Originally, the west end of US 28 was at the Pacific coast in Florence OR, where today's OR hwy. 126 ends at US 101. The photos below are courtesy of; this first one is looking west on 126:

Elbert, Aug. 2004

That was the original west end of US 28. Below we're looking north on US 101:

Elbert, Aug. 2004

What a cool tree on that corner. US 28 began to the right; the signage mounted above the traffic signal is shown close-up below.

Elbert, Aug. 2004

Below is a view from the opposite direction (south on US 101):

Elbert, Aug. 2004

The signage at far right is shown close-up below:

Elbert, Aug. 2004

To the left was the original west beginning of US 28.

In 1937, the segment of US 28 from Eugene to Florence was decommissioned; its endpoint from then until 1952 can be viewed on this page. After that, the US 26 designation was extended westward along much of US 28's route, and the remaining segment between here and Prineville was re-numbered as US 126.