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100 years of US routes: 1926-2026
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1926-1935
North: Montgomery, AL
South: Marianna, FL
1935-1952
North: Montgomery, AL
South: Panama City, FL
1952-present
North: St. John, IN
South: Panama City, FL
Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 912 miles for US 231. That closely matches our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 917.2 miles. Want historic mileages? Our handy reference book includes the mileages that were published in all 13 of AASHO/AASHTO's historic route logs (spanning the years 1927 to 1989).
Marianna
US 231 was an original 1926 route, but back then it was quite short. Its north end was in Montgomery, and the original south end of US 231 was at US 90 in Florida. Instead of going through Cottondale and Alford (as it does today), US 231 angled southeasterly to Marianna:
c. 1927, Rand McNally
This photo was looking south on what is now FL hwy. 73, which is the road US 231 historically followed into town:
Nelson, Aug. 2005
Heading east on US 90, the former south beginning of US 231 looks like this today:
Nelson, Aug. 2005
From the opposite direction, the highway is still signed "TO US 231"...
Nelson, Aug. 2005
Panama City
...but already by 1935 that first six-mile segment leading out of Marianna was truncated. Instead, the US 231 designation was changed to a more southerly route through Cottondale to its current south end in Panama City:
c. 1939, Rand McNally
These photos were looking south on Harrison Avenue at the terminus. Modern US 98 traffic bypasses downtown via 15th Street, but the US 231 designation still continues south of there to 6th Street, which is the original US 98 through town (now marked as Business 98):
Cozart, Dec. 2003
Ivy/Nitzman, Dec. 2008
Almost all of those signs were gone a few years later.
Here, we are looking west on 6th at Harrison; to the right is the south beginning of US 231:
Cozart, Dec. 2003
Nitzman, July 2006
This page has info about why that 231 shield was yellow. Sadly, those signs were replaced shortly after that photo was taken...
...and now that entire overhead assembly is gone too. Here is what signage looked like (from the opposite direction on Business 98):
Nitzman, July 2006
Bear/Ivy/Nitzman, Jan. 2016
For drivers who take that turn to the north, the confirming assembly looks like this:
Nitzman, July 2006
Bear/Ivy/Nitzman, Jan. 2016
In 1952 the north end of US 231 was extended all the way up to its current terminus at US 41, on the outskirts of St. John (this article contains more about the history of that decision).
Research and/or image credits: Jake Bear; Justin Cozart; Paul Dienhart; Brent Ivy; Steven Nelson; Alex Nitzman; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa
Page originally created 2001;last updated May 17, 2025.
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