Did Route 66 ever go through Claude TX?

[usends]

The 1926 route log had US 370 ending in Claude: http://us-highways.com/1927us.htm
There wouldn't have been any reason for it to end there, unless US 66 went through Claude.

Partially backing up this idea are a couple maps from 1928, one of which is shown on this page: http://usends.com/70-79/370/370.html
Here's another one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usends/16239295275/in/set-72157624737854948/
These show US 66 angling SW from Conway, joining US 370 (today's US 287) west of Claude, near Washburn.  That curving route from Conway to Washburn is dubious, but it's possible the actual route stair-stepped between those two towns.

A TXDOT map from 1930 indicates that by then US 66/SR 75 had been changed to go due west from Conway to Amarillo, using the well-known historic alignment: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usends/16051768188/in/set-72157624737854948/
But I note that map classifies roads in the area as "Graded Earth" and/or "Impassible when wet", so to me it doesn't seem like much of a stretch that in the late '20s the Conway-Amarillo direct segment might not have been suitable for travel, and therefore original US 66 traffic might have been directed Conway-Claude-Amarillo and/or Conway-Washburn-Amarillo.

Anyone have further insights?

[Mapmikey]

1927 Clasons Atlas shows US 370 ending at US 66 in Goodnight, 12 miles east of Claude.

It shows US 66 going McLean - Jericho - Goodnight - Claude - Amarillo

1930 Clasons Atlas shows US 370 ending at US 66 in Claude.

It shows US 66 going McLean - Jericho - Conway - Claude - Amarillo

Mapmikey

[usends]

Mike, thanks for the info.  Are these maps online, or in your personal collection? 

Also, is it possible the 1927 map shows Jericho - Clarendon - Claude (rather than Goodnight)?  I'm having a hard time visualizing the route from Jericho to Claude without going through Clarendon (unless it was via some no-longer-extant crossing of the Salt Fork).

[NE2]

1923 (?) Blue Book:

0.0 AMARILLO, 4th & Polk Sts., at banks. East on 4th St. 4 blks.
0.2 Buchanan St., left. Cross RRs 0.5.
1.1 Right-hand road; right.
5.0 Fork beyond RR; right from pavement onto dirt road.
15.0 Right-hand road at ranch; right. Cross RR 15.6.
16.0 Left-hand road; left.
21.1 End of road; left then right along RR.
27.0 Conway. Left across RR then right along same.
42.1 End of road; right.
42.5 Left-hand road; left.
43.0 Groom, 4-cor. at bank. Right 1 blk. then left along RR.
45.7 4-cor.; right. Cross RR 45.8.
49.2 End of road; right.
54.9 Turn left then right. Thru edge of Jericho 56.6.
56.9 Left-hand road; left. Ahead at 56.9 leads to Clarendon.
69.4 Allanreed, 4-cor. at lumberyard. Right across RR at sta.
77.1 4-cor.; left.
78.2 4-cor. at farm; turn right.
78.6 Left-hand road at shed; left. Cross RR at sta. 78.9.
79.0 McLean at bank. Right.


89.1 McLean, at bank. Left. Cross RR at sta. 89.2.
89.5 End of road at shed; right.
89.9 4-cor. at farm; left.
91.0 4-cor.; right.
98.6 Allanreed. Cross RR at sta.
98.7 4-cor. at lumber yard; left.
99.3 Fork; left along RR.
111.2 End of road; right, then left. Left at 111.2 leads to Clarendon. Thru edge of Jericho 111.5.
113.2 End of road, left, then right.
118.9 Left-hand road; left.
122.4 4-cor. beyond RR; left.
125.0 Groom, at sta. Right 1 blk., then left at bank.
125.6 End of road; right.
126.0 Left-hand road; left.
141.4 Conway, at sta. Left across RR, then right along same.
147.0 End of road; left, then right.
152.1 End of road; right. Cross RR 152.5.
153.1 End of road at ranch; left.
167.0 End of road; left on Buchanan St. Cross RRs. at sta. 167.6.
167.9 4th St.; right 4 blks.
168.1 AMARILLO, 4th & Polk Sts. at banks.


This appears to leave Amarillo on eventual US 66 (Amarillo Boulevard). Then I think it turns right on CR C (I-40 exit 85) - the railroad at 15.6 fits - and left on CR 2, jogs left and right on CR H, and follows FM 2161 through Conway. It may have jogged left and right at FM 294 or CR AA, ending up on CR 2 into Groom, then right on FM 295, left on 1st, then right and left one block on something.

And then http://www.flickr.com/photos/uconnlibrariesmagic/8020481339/ (1932) shows Washburn but not Claude. I wonder if the feds thought this would be a better way to build the system, but Texas refused.

[Mapmikey]

Mike, thanks for the info.  Are these maps online, or in your personal collection? 

Also, is it possible the 1927 map shows Jericho - Clarendon - Claude (rather than Goodnight)?  I'm having a hard time visualizing the route from Jericho to Claude without going through Clarendon (unless it was via some no-longer-extant crossing of the Salt Fork).

From the personal collection:

1927


1930



Mapmikey

[NE2]

I wonder how many of these mapmakers had actually been to Amarillo.

[usends]

I wonder how many of these mapmakers had actually been to Amarillo.

Yeah, I'm skeptical about the diagonals shown from Conway to Washburn, and from Jericho to Goodnight.  Of course, in lieu of personally visiting a place, mapmakers can instead rely on good source material, but it seems like there might've been some confusion and/or misinformation in this area during this timeframe. 

I suspect the intention for US 66 had always been the more direct route (Jericho-Groom-Conway-Amarillo), especially considering the fact that routing was already shown on some maps from the very beginning of the US highway system (e.g. Mike's 1927 map in this thread).  So that makes me wonder if, around the time the US routes were assigned, maybe that segment became impassable for some reason.  (For example, maybe it was an unusually rainy period, and some playa rose high enough to wash out the road.)  Texas might've sent AASHO a report in 1926 stating that [future US 66] traffic had to detour through Claude, prompting them to have US 370 end there.  But there were other detour routes that worked too, which might explain all the strange and inconsistent routings shown on various maps: cartographers attempting to map out the detours people were using through Clarendon, Goodnight, Claude, and/or Washburn.

[NE2]

Looks like Rand McNally always took it via Yarnall-Conway: 1922 (?), 1927. ca. 1924 Clason's agrees, even showing the same railroad crossing as the Blue Book.

Note that in 1927 Amarillo-Jericho was still unpaved, so perhaps there were plans to built a different alignment that never materialized. The 1922 Texas official (essentially a planning map, not a tourist map) shows a direct Jericho-Goodnight diagonal (1922) that was included in the federal aid 7% system. By 1926 it had moved to Jericho-Groom-Conway-junction east of Washburn. I wonder if this junction is what AASHO meant by Claude, and Clason's in their 1930 map relied on AASHO.

The 1929 official does show a graded road from Conway to Washburn, but perhaps this was just a sloppy redrawing of the 1926. 1933 has it all paved the on modern US 66 alignment.

Here's an entry from November 4, 1926 that implies the modern alignment had been chosen by then:

Tex., Panhandle – Carson County. J. A. Whiteside, County Judge, plans paving 2 highways: Highway No. 75, Postal Highway, from Potter County line, through Groom and Conway to Gray County line; Highway No. 102, from Panhandle to connect with Hutchinson County paving; J. O. Cox, County Engr.

[texaskdog]

Mike, thanks for the info.  Are these maps online, or in your personal collection? 

Also, is it possible the 1927 map shows Jericho - Clarendon - Claude (rather than Goodnight)?  I'm having a hard time visualizing the route from Jericho to Claude without going through Clarendon (unless it was via some no-longer-extant crossing of the Salt Fork).

From the personal collection:

1927


1930



Mapmikey

Interesting that 370 is now 287, 366 is now 60, and that 385 used to run through Channing (the alt route I always take)

[NE2]

There were so many changes in the TXDOT minute orders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:NE2/TX_minute_orders

1922-08-21: Amarillo - Conway - Jericho - Naylor - Lela - Shamrock - Oklahoma (as extension of 13)
1922-11-27: redefined as 7% secondary SH 5 near Goodnight - Jericho - Shamrock - Oklahoma
1924-03-17: DEFERRED Amarillo - Jericho (to replace Goodnight - Jericho)
1924-05-19: Washburn - Conway - Groom - Jericho (replaced Goodnight - Jericho)
1925-09-21: Amarillo - Conway - Groom - Jericho detailed alignment
1929 map: Oklahoma - Shamrock - Jericho - Conway - Washburn
1930-03-19 2722 log: Oklahoma (Benonine) - Shamrock - Jericho - near Washburn
1931-06-24 4439 log: Oklahoma (Benonine) - Shamrock - Jericho - SH 33 near Amarillo
1933-02-10 7361 log: Oklahoma (Benonine) - Shamrock - Jericho - SH 5 near Amarillo
1935-09-17 11281 log: Oklahoma (Benonine) - Shamrock - Amarillo, submitted to feds
1935-10-08 11371 log: Oklahoma (Benonine) - Shamrock - near Washburn, submitted to feds
1935-11-19 11573 log: Oklahoma (Benonine) - Shamrock - Amarillo, submitted to feds

[usends]

Thanks for the research.  A lot of this info has been incorporated into the revised Amarillo page on usends.com.

[Mapmikey]

Resurrecting this thread, as the AASHO minutes have some definitive answers.

The original US 370 endpoint was in Washburn.  The 1927-other-TX document (pg.3) has a letter from TX alerting AASHO of an error in its 1926 description of US 370: "Highways 66 and 370 join at a point a few miles northwest of Claude in Armstrong County."  This places the endpoint at today's frontage rd on the north side of US 287 at CR 3 (which appears to have always had the kink at the south end).  There is a small possibility it ended at CR 4 instead.

The 1930-other-TX document (pg. 82) has an 11/6/30 letter from Texas correcting AASHO in that US 66 and US 370 are separate to Amarillo and that US 370 should be changed to begin at Amarillo instead of Claude.  Two pages later is another letter formally requesting the US 370 changes.

The 1932-other-TX document (pg. 66) has an 11/13/34 letter from Texas correcting AASHO in that US 370 now continues to Amarillo and does not stop in Claude.

The 1930 and 1932 entries suggest Claude was the endpoint by then but I saw no references to US 66 or US 370 in the 1928 and 1929 Other documents.

[usends]

The original US 370 endpoint was in Washburn.  The 1927-other-TX document (pg.3) has a letter from TX alerting AASHO of an error in its 1926 description of US 370: "Highways 66 and 370 join at a point a few miles northwest of Claude in Armstrong County." 

This is interesting, thanks.

The 1930-other-TX document (pg. 82) has an 11/6/30 letter from Texas correcting AASHO in that US 66 and US 370 are separate to Amarillo and that US 370 should be changed to begin at Amarillo instead of Claude.

Seems odd that TXDOT wanted to correct AASHO, but it appears they never corrected their own records to Washburn, and it took a long time to change the endpoint to Amarillo:

[Mapmikey]

Digging deeper, it appears Texas was having trouble figuring out what they were doing.  For instance, when US 60 was extended it was apparently news to at least some of TxDOT that US 164 was already on that route to be replaced.

But as it relates to US 66 and US 370...

pgs 1-2 of the Sept 21, 1925 minutes has TX 75 routed away from Washburn to instead end up at TX 33, 6 miles from Amarillo.

pg. 28 of the March 17-19, 1930 minutes has TX 75 ending at a point near Washburn

pg. 28 of the June 22-24, 1931 minutes has TX 75 rerouted to end at TX 33 (then US 164) near Amarillo.  This would've potentially changed the endpoint of US 164, too, but I don't think this actually happened.

pg. 15 of the Feb 8-10, 1933 minutes changed the June 1931 change to say it ends at TX 5 near Amarillo

[usends]

Again, thanks for all the research.  I think that provides enough info to finally answer the question in the thread title: no, US 66 never went through Claude.  However, it did go through Washburn until about 1931, so that is where the original west terminus of US 370 was located.  TXDoT tried to correct AASHO already by early 1927, but since TXDoT did not specify the name of the junction was "Washburn", AASHO just left it as "Claude".  I also found evidence that US 370 was extended into Amarillo in 1929, even before US 66 had been rerouted away from Washburn (details on the updated Amarillo page).

[usends]

Major plot twist.

NE2's earlier speculations in this thread turned out to be pretty close to what actually happened.

Jim Ross (a Route 66 researcher) passed along some late-'20s / early-'30s Amarillo newspaper articles.  As it turns out, US 66's alignment through Washburn was planned but never implemented.  Instead, US 66 always went due east of Amarillo using N. 8th Av (now renamed Amarillo Blvd).  Early maps and route logs that had US 66 going through Washburn were based on this planned alignment, because it seems TXDOT was not transparent [with AASHO / mapmakers / other organizations] about the fact that they had not actually built that segment.  I find the articles to be quite convincing; you can view them on my Amarillo page.

So what this means in terms of endpoints is that US 370 always ended in Amarillo, never in Washburn.

[Mapmikey]

Good stuff...

I'm betting there are more mysteries from the early days of the US routing system that could be solved by newspaper articles...