I drove through there a long time ago, just to see the place. It was not the bustling metropolis it is now. It looks like the county road was paved in the past 10 years. I just drove around the loop and got back on the highway. I want to see it again and drive the county road out to RM 652 the next time I go that way, probably on the way to the Guadalupe Mountains.
It's interesting how they use county road shields with JCT banners and arrows like they do on highways. What most interests me is the possibility of one-way roads. It looks like it could be, with that diagonal connector, but that doesn't seem warranted. The reason is given in the 1936 map. At that time, the only road out of town to the northwest was Pecos Street. It curved at the edge of town. At some point prior to the 1955 map, Dallas Street was extended and the two roads formed a fork. For some decades, there was also a diagonal connector from the county road to the south converging onto Pecos Street. That can still be seen in aerial imagery. Traffic passing through on those roads had a very small advantage, two diagonals instead of two right angle turns. The right angle turn on the existing diagonal was put in when the road was paved. TxDOT now has a vendetta against forks and for several years has been replacing them with right angles when rebuilding roads, with at least one project carried out for that specific purpose.
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/apps/arc/maps/storage/texas_media/imgs/map04935.jpg
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Topic: Mentone, TX: Unique Very Narrow CR Shields, FM Loop (Read 706 times)