Endpoints of
US Route 287[s]

Fort Collins

US 287 was commissioned in 1934 for two reasons: 1.) to eliminate the US 87E / US 87W split routes, and 2.) to eliminate the short US 285[i] designation.  North of Yellowstone National Park, US 87W was subsumed by a northward extension of US 89.  But US 89 could not fulfill that role to the south of Yellowstone, so instead the US 287 designation was created.  It eliminated US 87W southeast to Muddy Gap, and then continued down to Rawlins via the original US 87.  But instead of ending there, US 287 was overlapped with US 30 eastward to Laramie, and from there it subsumed US 285[i] down to Ft. Collins.  The remainder of US 285[i] from Ft. Collins to Denver became part of a re-routed and extended US 87, which followed College Avenue north from downtown, then north and east on modern CO hwy. 1 through Wellington and into Wyoming...

...however, US 287's junction with US 87 was not configured the same as the current intersection where CO 1 meets US 287.  Rather, College made a more gentle curve to connect with Terry Lake Road (today's CO 1).  Part of that curve is still in use today: the short segment of Spaulding Lane that connects to Terry Lake.  This next map shows how the junction has changed over the years:

Here, we are looking north on College.  Today this is northbound US 287, which curves to the left, and the signal at upper left is the modern intersection with CO 1.  But originally, when this was northbound US 87, there was a "Y" intersection here.  US 87 curved to the right to join Terry Lake Rd, while the curve to the left was the south beginning of US 287: