Current and historic endpoints of US highway 199 in Grants Pass, OR

View a map showing this route.

Photo credits: Chris Elbert; Alex Nitzman; Mike Wiley
Additional research: Dennis McClendon

The north end of US 199 has been at Grants Pass OR since the US routes were originally commissioned in 1926. However, the north endpoint shifted a bit when I-5 was built; the map below shows the first endpoint of US 199:

Originally US 199 ended at the intersection at lower left, known as "Redwood Junction", shown below:

Elbert, Mar. 2005

That's looking north on US 199, at its historic north end (southbound US 99 was right, and northbound was to the left). Straight ahead crosses the river and becomes Grants Pass Parkway, but that wasn't an option originally (see below). After I-5 came through here in about 1965, the US 199 designation was extended north with hwy. 99, and then east to its terminus at interchange 55:

(At some point, US 99 was decommissioned and replaced with OR 99; and also 7th Street became a one-way partner with 6th Street to carry hwy. 99 traffic.) The photo below is from southbound I-5 at the north beginning of US 199:

Elbert, Mar. 2005

Instead of "Ocean Beaches", the control point on that sign used to be "Oregon Caves":

Wiley, 2001

Anyway, if you exit there, the photo below shows the signage that used to be at the bottom of the ramp:

Elbert, Mar. 2005

That was pretty ugly - fortunately they've cleaned it up a bit since then:

Elbert, July 2009

The assembly pointing right should say "US 199; To OR 99". If you take that right, you see the first southbound US 199 marker:

Elbert, Mar. 2005

But if you were to go left at the bottom of the off-ramp, you'd be at the north end of US 199, and your only options would be to go north or south on I-5:

Nitzman, Mar. 2005

Below is a close-up of the signage:

Elbert, Mar. 2005

Today there's a relatively recent re-routing of US 199 (extended east from Redwood Junction, via a third bridge over the river) called Grants Pass Parkway, shown on the map below:

Today's US 199 joins "old" US 199 (E Street) about a half-mile west of I-5, so its north terminus did not change after the Parkway was built. The northernmost marker is a goof...

...because is shows "OR 199" instead of US 199. The south end of US 199 has always been in Crescent City CA - you can view photos from there on my main US 199 page.