OK: Carter and Stephens Counties (with old signs)!

[Scott5114]

I think whenever I take a short day trip I'm going to start posting the photos in this forum as well as categorizing them by county on my website, so that the "narrative" of the trip is still accessible.

This particular trip was with a friend to take her down to the town of Healdton so she could visit friends. While she was doing that, I took a jaunt over towards Duncan on an old alignment of OK-7.

One of the neat things about Oklahoma is that none of its towns are too terribly old, typically dating back to the 1880s or so. Therefore, you can often trace the etymology of town names easily, and in cases where towns were named after people, you can even meet their descendants. One of the members of upper management where I work has the last name "Heald", and he explained that his family was involved in the founding of Healdton. Also, one of the descendants of schoolteacher Frank W. Goldsby, namesake of the town of Goldsby where I grew up, was my elementary school's librarian (the Goldsby school, however, had closed down long ago, converted into the town hall and later a tag agency).

Anyway. Ahem. On with the pictures.


The ugliest speed limit sign in history, found in Healdton. I think this is Helvetica, or maybe Univers. According to my friend it has been around "forever" and she apparently punched it once. Smart kid.


The only stoplight in Healdton, at SH-76 and 4th Street.


Closeup on the mastarm signage, which appears to use some kind of custom font.


North of Healdton, SH-53 concurs with SH-76. The concurrency lasts until the small town of Fox, where 53 splits off towards I-35 and the towns of Springer and Gene Autry.


Ratliff City, where SH-76 meets SH-7, a major east-west route. SH-76 grows to four lanes and divides near the intersection. This pavement looks really old. I wonder how long this intersection has been like this.


Modern SH-7 reassurance shield just west of OK-76. All SH-7 shields are off-center like this. No known reason why. Maybe it has something to do with the state outline and getting it to look right with the text gap requirements.


Mileage sign listing distances to Velma and Duncan. Modern SH-7 bypasses Velma, but is within visual range of it.


This is where the old alignment once tied into eastbound SH-7 towards Ratliff City. The connection has since been severed. SH-7 was realigned between Ratliff City and Velma in the 1980s.


This ancient shield points the way from the 80's SH-7 alignment to the modern one. Though the realignment dates to the 1980s, this shield is older than that–it lacks any identifying marks as being erected by ODOT, which was established in 1976 and as far as I know has always stamped their shields with at least their name.


Closeup. It appears this shield may have had a straight arrow at one point and when the highway was realigned, the arrow was simply turned ninety degrees. Or perhaps this was a turn in the original alignment.


Another old shield. You can see the other one in the background, along with an ancient sharp turn sign.


Closeup.


This shield is found in Stephens County as the old alignment approaches Velma. From this point onward the alignment was part of SH-7 until 1969.


Guide signage pointing to Duncan Lake and Lake Fuqua. I am having trouble determining whether this was placed by Oklahoma Department of Highways when this was still SH-7 (pre-1969), or Stephens County some time after it had been turned over to them. The arrows being on the wrong side suggests the county, as well as it appearing old but not too old.