End of historic US highway 450 |
1926-1930(?)
|
1930(?)-1933
|
1933-1938
|
Except for Walsenburg, the placenames listed above are rather obscure, and many maps do not label them. Ucolo is a few miles off US 491, on the stateline between Monticello UT and Dove Creek CO. Crescent Junction is a tiny settlement at I-70's interchange 180 (some maps label the site "Brendel", probably after a nearby railroad siding). Valley City was about five miles south of Crescent on US 191. Nothing is there today, but historically the site marked the terminus of US 450, at its junction with US 50.
US 450 was among the original 1926 routes; its east end was in Walsenburg. At the time, the west end of US 160 was at US 85 in Trinidad. Originally US 160 did not continue north with US 85 to Walsenburg, and then west again, as it does now. Instead, the road heading west from US 85 in Walsenburg was designated US 450: |
In about 1933 the US 160 designation was extended north with US 85 from Trinidad to Walsenburg. From there the designation replaced US 450 all the way west to the Utah line (from Cortez, US 160 originally went northwest through Dove Creek, instead of southwest through Four Corners as it does today). Apparently at the Utah line US 160 ended, and it was US 450 that continued up to Crescent for the next five years or so, until US 160 replaced US 450 in Utah as well. So until 1938, the "east" end of US 450 (even though it was now almost entirely a north/south route) was at the state line near Ucolo.
Research and/or photo credits: Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa
Page originally created 2000;
last updated Sep. 29, 2024.
last updated Sep. 29, 2024.