Why was this highway removed? In removing it and rerouting 37, they added two new routes, 121 and 116. Wouldn't it have made more sense to keep it's original alignment?
I think the concept behind this had to do with making 37 a single east-west route to match the physical alignment of the road. (48 was reused in the 1964 renumbering for a still-unbuilt desert highway from Route 14 north of Lancaster to Route 58 near Edwards AFB, originally incorporating a portion of what has always been Route 138 between Interstate 5 and Route 14.)