Endpoints of
US Route 73

View a map showing this route.  Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 112 miles for US 73.  That closely matches our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 113.2 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).

However, the modern junction of US 69 and US 75 does not mark the location of the historic terminus.  Rather, it seems more likely that US 75 came into town from the north on Sandy Creek Road, and then turned south on California Avenue.  Originally US 73 crossed Muddy Boggy Creek to the east of the current US 69 bridge, and entered Atoka via Ohio Avenue.  It then stair-stepped over to California via Court Street, Mississippi Avenue, and 2nd Street.  That is the perspective of this interactive image:

That is the original south end of US 73.  The crossroad is California, or old US 75.  Mississippi (current US 69) is a block behind the camera.  In 1930, California was extended north from Sandy Creek, and that intersection became the new terminus of US 73.  This photo was looking north on California:

This image was looking south on US 75; Auburn is about four miles behind the camera.  This county road leading to Howe was once the north beginning of US 73:

After US 73 was changed to its current alignment around 1936, its historic segment (from there through Howe, Stella, and Shubert, to the current US 73) became NE hwy. 54.  The segment from US 75 to Stella has since been removed from the state highway log, but old US 73 from Stella to Shubert is still maintained by the state as NE 62, and from Shubert to modern US 73 is now NE 67.

This photo was looking west on the county road coming from Howe, at its junction with US 75.  This was the original north terminus of US 73:

This was the beginning of US 73 as seen from northbound I-435: