[Talk-us] Historic 66 as highway=trunk in OK

[Paul Johnson]

On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 9:10 AM Kevin Kenny <kevin.b.kenny at gmail.com> wrote:

> 'Historic US 66' is a bannered and numbered route because of its
> history, not because of its current importance to the road system. The
> constituent ways should be tagged as whatever they are currently in
> the road network. In many places, 'Historic US 66' no longer follows
> the historic route of the road because the road is no longer passable
> or no longer has good connections to the highway network. For example,
> from Flagstaff, Arizona to the New Mexico state line (except for brief
> detours through Winslow and Holbrook) the bannered 'Historic Route 66'
> is highway=motorway because the construction of I-40 obliterated or
> disconnected the old route.  (I don't know whether I-40 actually bears
> the signage anywhere.)
>

It does, sporadically, as of the last time I was that far west on 66.  And
there's also places like in Tulsa where there's multiple old alignments,
all of which are signed as Historic 66.  In order of mundane to strange,
would be its final alignment on what's now I 44, a couple major section
line boulevards across north Tulsa, an otherwise fairly anonymous two lane
road running between flood control ponds in a residential neighborhood,
what's now a quiet light industrial and residential street about a block
from where America's first yield sign once stood, and a staircase.

There are places where the old road exists on the ground and bears the
> name, but are not bannered because a road fails to connect or is no
> longer reliably passable to low-clearance automobiles. The route can
> be followed for some distance east and west of Exit 303, for instance.
> It's at most an 'unclassified' road and connects mostly to tracks. At
> the east end of that run, there's no crossing of I-40, and the road
> simply turns right onto another track. On the other side of the
> freeway, the pavement resumes, but in Petrified Forest it's
> unmaintained and has deteriorated to where it is neither safe nor
> lawful to drive. East of there, it's a track at best, and again ends
> at a freeway crossing without an interchange.  On the far side, it's a
> minor rural road (County Road 7385)
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/16792461, then crosses the freeway
> at McCarrell and becomes the freeway frontage road in Chambers. If
> memory serves, some of the tracks that remain in use are no longer
> public rights-of-way, and neither the ranchers nor the Navajo Nation
> welcome visitors on them.
>

Pueblo Laguna still has Indian Road L66, but they've intentionally removed
the pavement, and the signage along the road telling you not to take
pictures and that they do not want visitors makes it pretty clear that
you're merely tolerated so long as you're minding your own business, taking
only memories and leaving only tire tracks in the dust (though I think this
might be in New Mexico...I was conserving the food and water I had on hand
in case I got stuck and was taking the trip solo in a borderline overloaded
car after having emptied a storage unit, so I wasn't exactly traveling
under ideal conditions, L66 was easily the worst-maintained portion I was
willing to risk).


> In western Arizona, from Kingman to Seligman, the historic way is in
> service, is bannered 'AZ 66' and is at least 'secondary'.


About the only other classification I could see for that is primary, and
that's only because of it's relative historical value as a through route
that people come from around the world to drive, and (deep memory dive on
this) it's set up with permanent turnable/foldable signs to work as I 40
Detour in emergencies on the freeway.  ADOT bought the rights to Burma
Shave's branding just to maintain their own Burma Shave signs along that
section (amusingly, these are retroreflective metal signs made to roughly
the same physical specs as the standard MUTCD signs along the road).


> East of
> Seligman, it exists as Crookson Road and 'Old US 66, but diminishes to
> a track and disappears at a corner where it crosses neither I-40 nor
> the Phoenix spur of the Santa Fe. Between there are Flagstaff, there
> are fragmentary tracks, and some, such as
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/16792461 are entirely isolated from
> the road network. West of Kingman, it's County Road 10, and at least
> it used to be challenging to drive because it was a narrow and badly
> deteriorated road in mountainous terrain. The only community on the
> route is Oatman, which has enjoyed something of a resurgence as a
> tourist destination, "come see the ghost town where wild burros roam
> the streets." I'd say it's probably 'tertiary' because in that desert,
> it doesn't take much to make a road important.
>

It's still pretty rough and it's still a twisty drive, with the speed limit
being 15 MPH in places, IIRC.  Speed limit enforced by burro.  Wanted to
see the fire station for their restored, roofless firetrucks, but the
closest I could legally get to it was a block away because apparently the
Tuesday before Labor Day was an election day and only registered voters
were allowed within a block of the polling station across the street from
the fire station.  So only could see a couple unrestored relics and a water
tanker parked blocking the street to the firehall.
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