End of US highway 185

View a map showing this route.

Photo credits: me

Approx. time period North terminus South terminus
1926-1936 Orin, WY Cheyenne, WY

I've seen quite a few historic maps of Wyoming, and they all indicate that the north end of US 185 was at US 20 in Orin WY. However, Robert Droz' page indicates that the designation extended up to Casper. If you have any more information on this, please let me know! Barring that, I'm going with Orin as the north terminus. It was difficult to get anything meaningful, though, because much of the historic highway alignments in the area have been vacated. At first glance, you'd think 185 would've ended where today's WY hwy. 319 ends at US 18/20:

me, Mar. 2004

That's looking west, with the Laramie Mountains in the distance. However, thanks to the railroad overpass visible in the middleground, the northernmost half-mile of WY 319 has been rerouted. This junction is over a half-mile east of where US 185 used to connect with US 20. So ahead we go; the shot below shows where Converse CR 1 connects with US 18/20 at Orin Junction:

me, Mar. 2004

According to old topos, US 185 formed a "Y" intersection at US 20; CR 1 to the left was the east fork of the "Y". But you can't travel far on old 185 from here: right about where the two forks used to converge, now this road only curves back west and goes to the community of Orin proper.

The west fork of the "Y" is completely gone now, so the only other shot I could take was of the east fork, facing the opposite direction:

me, Mar. 2004

That's looking east on US 18/20. The east fork was a sharp right on CR 1; south of there, US 185 followed the railroad visible at far right.

The south end of US 185 was just north of Cheyenne. The photo below is looking south on (Old) Yellowstone Road, which becomes WY hwy. 219 on the other side of this intersection and goes into Cheyenne, just over the horizon:

me, May 2001

The crossroad is US 85; about a half-mile to the right is I-25 interchange 17. But originally there was no road going that direction. Instead, southbound US 85 came in from the left, and then turned straight ahead. The car at the stop sign is at the historic south end of US 185. The photo below is looking the opposite direction (north) on Yellowstone:

me, Jan. 2006

This used to be northbound US 85 out of Cheyenne, which turned right at the intersection ahead, and US 185 began straight ahead. The shot below is looking southwest on southbound US 85. It used to turn left on what is now WY 219, but now the designation extends straight ahead to connect with I-25:

me, May 2001

To the right was the south beginning of US 185. US 185 was decommissioned in 1936, when the Cheyenne-Casper corridor became a segment of the newly-signed US 87.