End of historic US highway 185 |
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Summa
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c. 1927, Rand McNally
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In Wyoming, US 87 originally ran west of its modern route, and it ended in Rawlins. The highway connecting Cheyenne to US 20 at Orin Junction (near Douglas) was designated US 185. At Orin, the original alignments of both US 20 and US 185 have been vacated. This animation superimposes a 1949 USGS topo onto a modern basemap. US 185 came in from the lower right along what by then had become part of US 87; the historic "Y" junction with US 20 is now gone...
To the left on CR 1 was the north beginning of US 185 for drivers heading west on US 20. Today one cannot travel far from there on old 185: right about where the two forks formerly converged, now the road only curves back west and goes to the community of Orin proper. The west fork of the "Y" is completely gone now.
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The south end of US 185 was in Cheyenne. This photo was 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:
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Sanderson, May 2001
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 The crossroad is US 85; about a half-mile to the right is I-25's interchange 17. But before I-25 was built, there was no road continuing to the right. Instead, southbound US 85 came in from the left, and then turned straight ahead. The car at the stop sign is at what may have been the historic south end of US 185... although it seems more likely that US 185 would have been dual-signed ahead with US 85 for about five miles, ending at its junction with US 30 in downtown Cheyenne. I have not seen a map detailed enough to confirm that, but this one at least suggests the possibility:
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c. 1928, Gallup
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At the top of that map, destinations were listed for highway traffic heading north out of town; here is a close-up view of that part of the map:
(detail)
That may indicate that both designations were applied to the north of downtown Cheyenne. If so, then the south terminus of US 185 would have been at its junction with US 30. If we zoom in on that part of the map, we see that Central Avenue did not go all the way through town, because there was a park between 22nd and 24th streets. This is where the State Supreme Court and the State Museum are located now, and Central has since been extended through. But at the time traffic was directed one block west to Capitol Avenue, so US 185 would have ended on Capitol at Lincolnway (nee 16th Street):
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(detail)
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Here is a modern view looking south on Capitol, where US 185 probably ended at US 30:
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Sanderson, Sep. 2019
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US 185 was decommissioned in 1934, when the Cheyenne-Casper corridor became a segment of the newly-extended US 87.
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Research and/or photo credits: Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa
Page originally created 2001;
last updated Dec. 9, 2023.
last updated Dec. 9, 2023.
