End of historic US highway 666 |
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Summa
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Summa
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1926-1938
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1938-1970
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1970-1992
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1992-2003
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Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 605 miles for US 666. That is reasonably close to our own measurement, which yielded 601.5 miles. That measurement was made at the time of US 666's maximum historical extent, but shortly after that the route was truncated to Gallup, and later it was completely decommissioned.
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Claim to fame: US 666 was the most recent US route to be decommissioned; its designation was changed to US 491 in 2003.
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US 666 was an original 1926 route; at the time its north end was at US 450 (which later became US 160) in Cortez. Despite its east/west number, US 666 was always a north/south route. It was not misnumbered though, because at the time it was commissioned, it connected only with two other east/west routes, so no appropriate odd number was available. The original south end of US 666 was at its parent route, US 66, in Gallup. Historically US 666 came into town from the north on what is now NM 608 (9th Street). There it was routed east on Maloney Avenue, and old topo maps indicate that traffic used 3rd Street to connect with US 66...
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c. 1963, USGS
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...although, by the time of that map, US 66 traffic had been rerouted along the road historically called Railroad Avenue. Originally US 66 used Coal Avenue, but in 1931 traffic was redirected to use Railroad, and the city officially changed its name to "66 Avenue":
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c. 1934-1940 (linked to source)
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The image on this postcard (looking west on Coal at 3rd) shows that Coal was a one-way street carrying eastbound US 66 traffic...
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c. 1950s, attribution unknown
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...so it appears that from the 1930s through the 1950s, Coal and Railroad formed a one-way couplet through Gallup. Therefore, since US 666 had already been extended south of Gallup by 1938, we can conclude that its endpoint prior to that was always at Coal (never at Railroad). At the time of the photo shown above, Coal was carrying not only eastbound US 66 (which continued straight ahead), but also northbound US 666 (which continued to the left on 3rd). But from 1927-1938, the south beginning of US 666 was to the left on 3rd.
This interactive image shows the perspective of a driver who would have been at the south end of US 666, heading south on 3rd at Coal: |
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Following are a couple a classic Gallup Route 66 scenes, taken looking east on what is now called "Historic 66 Av" (nee Railroad Av). At far right is the Rex Museum, with a US 66 shield included on its neon sign:
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In 1938, the south end of US 666 was extended west of Gallup, into Arizona along what is now I-40, and then south on the road that is now designated US 191, all the way to the Mexico border at Douglas.
In 1970 the US 160 designation was changed to go southwest out of Cortez into Arizona (instead of northwest to Utah). At that time, the north end of US 666 was extended along former US 160 to end at the newly-created US 163 in Monticello (at the time, US 163 is the route that replaced the remainder of US 160 up to Crescent Jct. It later became an extension of US 191.) During the mid-1980s Utah proposed an extension of US 666, but it was disapproved by AASHTO (read more here).
In 1992, Arizona removed the US 666 designation from their state, and replaced it with a southern extension of US 191... which is a more appropriate number, and the DoT certainly has a lot fewer roadsign thefts now. This left a dangling segment of US 666 from Gallup to the AZ line, but by the end of the year NM had truncated the designation in their state to Gallup. However, by that time US 666 was on a new alignment through the city; photos and more info on the Gallup page.
In 1970 the US 160 designation was changed to go southwest out of Cortez into Arizona (instead of northwest to Utah). At that time, the north end of US 666 was extended along former US 160 to end at the newly-created US 163 in Monticello (at the time, US 163 is the route that replaced the remainder of US 160 up to Crescent Jct. It later became an extension of US 191.) During the mid-1980s Utah proposed an extension of US 666, but it was disapproved by AASHTO (read more here).
In 1992, Arizona removed the US 666 designation from their state, and replaced it with a southern extension of US 191... which is a more appropriate number, and the DoT certainly has a lot fewer roadsign thefts now. This left a dangling segment of US 666 from Gallup to the AZ line, but by the end of the year NM had truncated the designation in their state to Gallup. However, by that time US 666 was on a new alignment through the city; photos and more info on the Gallup page.
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In 2003, the three remaining states through which US 666 ran (Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico) asked AASHTO's permission to change the route's designation to US 491, and the request was granted. So US 666 no longer exists, although the three states initially signed the road "New 491, Old 666", and some of those signs still exist (see the US 491 page). Here is a short article scanned from National Geographic magazine:
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In 2003 usends.com had a lengthy email exchange with a transportation official from southwest Colorado. His main reason for supporting the designation change was not mentioned in that article (probably because it was not sensational enough): due to chronic sign theft, they literally could not keep US 666 markers posted on the highway.
Research and/or photo credits: Chris Berry; Alan Hamilton; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa
Page originally created 1999;
last updated Nov. 28, 2021.
last updated Nov. 28, 2021.
