Historic US highway endpoints in (and near) Amarillo, TX
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1926-1939
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Amarillo may well be the grand champion of decommissioned highways (or grand loser, depending how one looks at it): of the eight US routes that have served the city, five of them no longer exist. That could be a misleading statement, though, so to clarify: it is not that the roadways themselves have disappeared. Rather, Amarillo was originally served by several shorter branch routes, which were later swallowed up by extensions of longer routes. As a result, several US route numbers that once graced the streets of Amarillo have been retired -- perhaps more than any other city.
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When the US routes were first commissioned in 1926, Amarillo found itself at the junction of north-south US 385[i] (which ran along Fillmore Street), and east-west US 66 (which headed west of Fillmore via South 6th Avenue, and originally went east of Fillmore using South 10th Avenue). Also, US 366[i] came into town heading northeast from El Paso. It met US 385 at Canyon (about 16 miles south of Amarillo), but instead of ending there, it overlapped with US 385 up to Amarillo. This is a detail from the Nov. 1926 map that AASHO published to illustrate the inaugural US routes:
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c. 1926, AASHO
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Most maps (including that one) were not detailed enough to label the US 366-385 concurrency between Canyon and Amarillo. So how do we know US 366 did not end in Canyon? For one thing, its number implies that it connected to US 66 (which went through Amarillo). But even more convincingly, AASHO's April 1927 route log stated that US 366 went to Amarillo:
c. 1927, AASHO
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The specific endpoint of US 366 in Amarillo will be discussed below. But first, note the map above also showed a fourth route: US 370, coming northwestward from Wichita Falls. US 66 heading west was shown with a broad curve to the southwest, meeting US 370 at a point southeast of Amarillo. That junction was not labeled on the map, but the 1927 route log specified that the location was Claude:
c. 1927, AASHO
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That curving segment of US 66 heading northeast from its junction with US 370 was quite conjectural on the part of the cartographer: there has never been a diagonal road in the area along anything resembling that corridor. However, several other cartographers mimicked that curve (as will be seen on some of the maps below). During the first few years of the US route system, it does appear to be the case that -- instead of heading due west into Amarillo -- US 66 stair-stepped southwest to a junction with US 370. But was that junction actually in Claude? The answer is no: already by Feb. 1927, when AASHO asked TXDoT to review their maps and route logs for accuracy, Texas responded with the following correction:
Did this junction located "northwest of Claude" have a name? And how many miles is "a few"? Since TXDoT did not specify those details, AASHO continued to use "Claude" as its control point. But this appears to have created confusion for cartographers back then. Maps as late as the early 1930s continued to show all kinds of conflicting information about the routing of US 66 and the location of its junction with US 370.
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For example, this one showed US 66 following the same non-existent curve to the southwest as the AASHO map shown above. US 370 was shown to join US 66 at an unlabeled junction northwest of Claude. However, instead of ending at that junction, US 370 was shown to piggyback with US 66 to Amarillo and end there:
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c. 1927, National Map Company
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Here is another 1927 example that also showed US 370 ending in Amarillo. However, in this rendering, US 370 couldn't have ended near Claude, because US 66 was shown to extend roughly due west from Conway, so it did not intersect US 370 until Amarillo:
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c. 1927, Rand McNally
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In other words, that map illustrated the "classic" route of US 66 east of Amarillo, although most other maps indicate that route was not open to traffic until about 1930. As the story was told by another 1927 map, US 66 did not go through Groom or Conway at all, because it instead followed a diagonal route (also completely fabricated) from Jericho to Goodnight, where it met US 370 east of Claude:
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c. 1927, Clasons
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By the next year (1928) maps seemed to be getting a little more consistent. These next two examples continued to exhibit the sweeping curve in US 66 between Washburn and Conway, and they also illustrated the addition of US 164[i], a new designation coming into Amarillo from the northeast:
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c. 1928
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c. 1928, Clasons
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At this point I will quickly address US 164 (before coming back to US 370). US 164 was not among the inaugural routes of Nov. 1926, but it was one of the first routes to be commissioned after that initial batch. The following excerpt is from a June 1927 letter from AASHO to TXDoT:
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As a result, US 164 was already shown on 1928 maps. Here is yet another example that shows US 164, as well as the junction of US 66 and US 370 in Washburn:
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c. 1928, Gallup
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That map is noteworthy because it may have been the most accurate in terms of US 66's actual alignment east of Amarillo: it showed US 66 heading due north from Washburn to a point labelled "Royal", then easterly to Conway and beyond.
It wasn't until 1930 that AASHO finally realized the US 66 - US 370 junction was not in Claude, but rather in Washburn. Correspondence indicates they were made aware of this detail not by TXDoT, but instead by a third-party commercial cartographer. In April of that year, upon realizing this distinction, AASHO sent a letter to TXDoT; below is an excerpt:
It wasn't until 1930 that AASHO finally realized the US 66 - US 370 junction was not in Claude, but rather in Washburn. Correspondence indicates they were made aware of this detail not by TXDoT, but instead by a third-party commercial cartographer. In April of that year, upon realizing this distinction, AASHO sent a letter to TXDoT; below is an excerpt:
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TXDoT's official state highway map of that year showed that not much had changed since 1928: US 164 was still shown heading northeast from Amarillo, and the US 66-370 junction was still at Washburn. However, this map included a fictitious diagonal road between Washburn and Conway:
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c. 1930, TXDoT
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This 1930 map also showed the diagonal between Washburn and Conway, but it suggested that US 66 did not use the diagonal, instead following the north-south highway between Conway and Claude:
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c. 1930, Clasons
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The scale of both of those maps was too small to show a US 66-370 concurrency between Amarillo and Washburn, but historic correspondence suggests that overlap was established in 1929. I base that conclusion on the following: in Nov. 1930, TXDoT wrote to AASHO suggesting that the west end of US 370 should be described as Amarillo instead of Washburn...
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...but in AASHO's response it was noted that the "little green book" (route log) that they had published the previous year already included each of those towns.
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Maps from 1930 were the last to show US 164, because that was the year the US 60 designation was extended west from Missouri. The westernmost segment of that extension was along what had been US 164, so that designation was absorbed in its entirety (from Amarillo to Enid OK). That change was illustrated on this map:
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c. 1931? TXDoT
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Another important change was also shown on that map: whereas previously US 66 had jogged southwest to join US 370 at Washburn, it now jogged northwest to join US 60 just east of Amarillo. However, not all cartographers immediately picked up on that distinction; this map from a couple years later still showed US 66 passing through Washburn:
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c. 1932, US Bureau of Public Roads (linked to source)
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On the other hand, that map did accurately portray the 1932 extension of US 60, which absorbed the former US 366 heading southwest from Amarillo. By contrast, even a TXDoT map from the following year (1933) showed US 60 along that route, but also showed US 366 concurrent with it. Also note this cartographer was very intentional about denoting the US 366-385 overlap between Amarillo and Canyon:
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c. 1933, TXDoT
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c. 1933, TXDoT
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c. 1934, Gallup
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Now that we have a good overview of the early changes that took place in the US route system around Amarillo, we will move on to the specific terminus points of those highways. Beginning with US 370: the earliest route logs indicated its west endpoint was at Claude, but as we have established, its junction with US 66 was actually at Washburn. The following photo shows the probable location of that junction: we are looking north on County Road 3; US 287 runs across the foreground. Initially, eastbound US 66 came from the left, and then continued by turning away from the camera (straight ahead on CR 3). To the right on today's US 287 was the original west beginning of US 370:
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Sanderson, Nov. 2021
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Now on to US 366: as we have discussed, this route approached Amarillo from the south, overlapped with US 385. In the city, traffic came in on Fillmore, so US 366 could have ended where it junctioned US 66 at South 10th Avenue. But based on signage practices common at the time, I find it to be more likely that US 366 would have been overlapped with US 66 and US 385 up to the main highway junction at the center of town: Fillmore at South 6th Avenue (where US 66 diverged again to the west).
By 1929, in addition to US 66, S. 10th would have also carried US 370. And then by about 1931, S. 10th carried only US 370 (recall by that time US 66 was straightened east of Amarillo, such that it no longer went through Washburn. It now left Amarillo using North 8th Avenue, rather than S. 10th). During that time US 366 still could have ended at S. 10th (junction US 370), and/or US 370 could have ended at Fillmore (junction US 366-385). But again, I think it is more likely that the three routes overlapped north on Fillmore, with both US 366 and US 370 sharing a common terminus at S. 6th (junction US 66).
Meanwhile, in 1928, US 164 was commissioned to serve traffic coming into Amarillo from the northeast. US 164 arrived via N. 8th (now Amarillo Boulevard), so the designation could have ended where it met US 385 (at Fillmore). However (this theme should be familiar by now) it is more likely that US 164 would have been co-signed down to the point where US 66 split off at S. 6th... in other words, the same endpoint as US 366 and US 370 (which causes one to wonder why US 164 was not numbered as a northeastward extension of US 366 instead).
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By the late 1920s, Amarillo was served by those five US routes, which led out of the city in five different directions, and which branched out to seven within a 16-mile radius. But as soon as 1930 rolled around, the route numbers began to change, and by the end of that decade, four of them were history. First, US 60 was extended eastward from Missouri to Amarillo. The westernmost segment of this extension was along what had been US 164, so that was the first of Amarillo's route numbers to be retired. US 60 would have had the same endpoint as US 164 for a year or two (Fillmore at S. 6th). In 1932 US 60 was extended again: this time westward out of Amarillo. And since that extension was along US 366, it brought about the demise of that route. Then in about 1935, US 385 was replaced by a southern extension of US 87. That was the arrangement illustrated on the following map (which unfortunately is the earliest detailed map of Amarillo that I have found thus far):
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c. 1938, TXDoT
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The year after that map (1939) a southeastward-expanding US 287 eliminated the US 370 designation. And the fifth (and final) US route to be removed from Amarillo was US 66, which was decommissioned in 1985. What this means is: every one of the seven original US routes that branched out of Amarillo in the 1920s has been renumbered.
So, to reiterate: while it is possible that some routes ended at Fillmore north of downtown (on N. 8th) and others may have ended to the south (on S. 10th), it is more likely that all four of them would have been signed to the central highway junction (at S. 6th). This photo was looking west on 6th: |
Sanderson, Mar. 2012
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It was unclear to me why there was a US 66 sign in this particular location (it has since been replaced with the more common brown version), because US 66 never used 6th east of Fillmore. But it was explained to me that people following westbound Historic 66 today cannot use Fillmore since it is one-way northbound. So instead drivers are directed to follow Pierce St. south, then 6th west... so that was a reassurance marker for them. Anyway, straight ahead (on the other side of Fillmore) was the original westbound US 66. Eastbound was to the left before 1931, but to the right after then. Also to the right was most likely the west beginning of US 164 from 1928 to 1930, and the west beginning of US 60 from 1930 to 1932. To the left was probably the north beginning of US 366 from 1926 to 1932, and the west beginning of US 370 until 1939. This photo was taken looking north on Fillmore:
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Sanderson, Mar. 2012
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Today that is one-way northbound, but originally Fillmore was a two-way street, and it carried both directions of US 385. Historically the four-block segment between S. 10th and S. 6th also carried US 66, which turned west (left) there. Later, eastbound US 66 was straight ahead. Also straight ahead was the west beginning of US 164 (and later, US 60). That would have been the perspective of a driver at the north end of US 366, and later at the west end of US 370. Next, we are looking the opposite direction (south on Fillmore):
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Sanderson, Mar. 2012
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That was US 385; originally westbound US 66 was to the right on 6th, while eastbound was straight ahead. Later, the segment of Fillmore between Amarillo Blvd. [nee N. 8th] and that point also carried US 66. Straight ahead was the beginning of US 366, and later US 370. That is the perspective of a driver at the historic west end of US 164, and later at the end of US 60.
Research and/or photo credits: William Bacon; Robert Droz; Nathan Edgars; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson
Page originally created 2006;
last updated Nov. 22, 2021.
last updated Nov. 22, 2021.
