State Routes That Visit Every County Seat

[roadman65]

I was just looking through my photographs of NJ Route 45 and realized that it is not only in two NJ counties, Gloucester and Salem respectively, but transits both seats of government for both counties.  It begins in Salem and passes the Salem County Courthouse and then further north passes through Woodbury, the county seat of Gloucester County.

So that route is two for two in county's seats.


Any others in your area or that you know does this.  In Florida we have US 90 that almost does this, but does not enter the county seat of Nassau.  Other counties it traverses it does serve the seats of government.  Although Wikipedia does state it does enter every county seat even though it misses one.

[NWI_Irish96]

IN 15 visits the county seat of all four counties it enters.

[jp the roadgeek]

CT doesn't have county seats per se, but I-95 and US 1 both pass through the namesake cities of 3 of the 4 counties they pass through: Fairfield (though Bridgeport would be the seat and they both pass through it), New Haven, and New London.  I-91 also hits all 3 traditional county seats: New Haven, Middletown (Middlesex; though nowhere near the center), and Hartford.

[vdeane]

CT doesn't have county seats per se, but I-95 and US 1 both pass through the namesake cities of 3 of the 4 counties they pass through: Fairfield (though Bridgeport would be the seat and they both pass through it), New Haven, and New London.  I-91 also hits all 3 traditional county seats: New Haven, Middletown (Middlesex; though nowhere near the center), and Hartford.

Since CT now uses the MPO areas as counties for Census purposes (and thus Mob-rule as well), whichever municipality where each MPO is based would seem to be the "county seat".

[oscar]

AK 1 serves the seats of all three boroughs it passes through (Soldatna for Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, Palmer for Matanuska-Susitna), not counting two census areas in the Unorganized Borough, which don't have seats.

[DTComposer]

EDIT: I missed one! US-101 enters San Benito County but doesn't reach Hollister. OOOOOOPS

California:

US-101 is the clear winner, going 13 for 13: Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, San Jose, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Eureka, and Crescent City. Bonus points for being the longest route in the state (808 miles).

More bonus points in that pre-1964, it was 15 for 15, including Santa Ana and San Diego.

All the other longer routes miss at least two county seats, including all the 2di Interstates except I-8 (which is only in two counties).

[Bruce]

I-5 hits all 9 county seats in the 9 counties it serves.

As for state routes, SR 20 comes close but just misses out on Mount Vernon. It also passes through the very far side of Whatcom County, so it's 6 for 8.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN:

TH 61 (though US 61 did not and still does not qualify in its truncated form)
TH 371 (also qualified as US 371 with Bemidji added that modern TH 371 doesn't go to)

former: US 16 (modern TH 16 does not qualify)

[pderocco]

California:

US-101 is the clear winner, going 13 for 13: Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, San Jose, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Eureka, and Crescent City. Bonus points for being the longest route in the state (808 miles).

More bonus points in that pre-1964, it was 15 for 15, including Santa Ana and San Diego.

Oops. It enters San Benito county without going through Hollister.

[Dough4872]

Pennsylvania Route 34 serves Gettysburg (Adams County), Carlisle (Cumberland County), and New Bloomfield (Perry County)
Pennsylvania Route 72 serves Lancaster (Lancaster County) and Lebanon (Lebanon County)
Pennsylvania Route 462 serves York (York County) and Lancaster (Lancaster County)
Maryland Route 12 serves Snow Hill (Worcester County) and Salisbury (Wicomico County)
Maryland Route 213 serves Centreville (Queen Anne's County), Chestertown (Kent County), and Elkton (Cecil County)

[DTComposer]

California:

US-101 is the clear winner, going 13 for 13: Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, San Jose, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Eureka, and Crescent City. Bonus points for being the longest route in the state (808 miles).

More bonus points in that pre-1964, it was 15 for 15, including Santa Ana and San Diego.

Oops. It enters San Benito county without going through Hollister.

AAAAAHHHHH! I have driven that literally over 100 times, how did I forget it?!?!?! Thanks for catching!

[Great Lakes Roads]

IN 15 visits the county seat of all four counties it enters.

Another one for Indiana- US 27 and IN 38

[jlam]

I'm pretty it's US 50 in Colorado. It serves the county seat of all 10 counties it passes through in the state.

Edit - Whoops, missed the State Highway part. Most I can find is CO 96, which serves all four of its counties' seats.

[Dirt Roads]

West Virginia ought to have some, given that many of the roads in the Mountain State have low traffic volumes and have been granted a State Route number only because they connect with the various county seats:

WV-7 (New Martinsville, Morgantown, Kingwood)
WV-14 (Parkersburg, Elizabeth, Spencer)
WV-16 (Welch, Pineville, Beckley, Fayetteville, Clay, Grantsville, Harrisville, Saint Marys)
US-19 (Princeton, Beckley and Fayetteville (along with WV-16), Sutton, Weston, Clarksburg, Fairmont, Morgantown)
WV-152 (Huntington, Wayne)
WV-310 (Fairmont, Grafton)
I-470 (Wheeling, twice!)

West Virginia also has some nifty one in the "almost, but not quite" category:

WV-2 (10 county seats, but not Ripley)
WV-3 (5 county seats, but not Lewisburg)
US-33 (7 county seats, but neither Grantsville nor Philippi)
US-219 (5 county seats, but not Kingwood)
US-220 (4 county seats, but not Romney)
US-250 (6 county seats, but not Marlinton nor New Martinsville)

[GaryV]

I-94 in Michigan hits almost all the county seats on it's path. It only misses the westernmost one, St. Joseph, Berrien County.

• Paw Paw, Van Buren
• Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo
• Marshall, Calhoun
• Jackson, Jackson
• Ann Arbor, Washtenaw
• Detroit, Wayne
• Mt. Clemens, Macomb (just touches the eastern edge of the city)
• Port Huron, St. Clair

Whoops, missed the State Highway part.

Routes numbered in the Interstate and US systems are state highways.

[GaryV]

US-41 hits all the county seats on it's path in Michigan:

• Eagle River, Keweenaw (just barely per Google Maps, although being an unincorporated place I'm not sure what is used as its boundaries)
• L'Anse, Baraga
• Marquette, Marquette
• Escanaba, Delta
• Menominee, Menominee

[Max Rockatansky]

California:

US-101 is the clear winner, going 13 for 13: Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, San Jose, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Eureka, and Crescent City. Bonus points for being the longest route in the state (808 miles).

More bonus points in that pre-1964, it was 15 for 15, including Santa Ana and San Diego.

Oops. It enters San Benito county without going through Hollister.

None of the ten longest state highways hits every county seat.  CA 49 did for a time when it needed at CA 89 and CA 140.

[newyooper]

US-41 hits all the county seats on it's path in Michigan:

• Eagle River, Keweenaw (just barely per Google Maps, although being an unincorporated place I'm not sure what is used as its boundaries)
• L'Anse, Baraga
• Marquette, Marquette
• Escanaba, Delta
• Menominee, Menominee

Don't forget:  Houghton, Houghton (right between Keweenaw and Baraga)  (for authority, check user name)

[JayhawkCO]

I'm pretty it's US 50 in Colorado. It serves the county seat of all 10 counties it passes through in the state.

Edit - Whoops, missed the State Highway part. Most I can find is CO 96, which serves all four of its counties' seats.

I think the only SRs that even go in more counties than that are CO59 and CO71, and both of them miss several.

And US50 doesn't quite hit them all.  It dips into Saguache County without going through the city of Saguache.

The only US Routes that are successful are:
US84 - 1 county (Archuleta)
US85 - 9 counties (Las Animas, Huerfano, Pueblo, El Paso, Douglas, Arapahoe, Denver, Adams, Weld)
US138 - 2 counties (Logan, Sedgwick)
US350 - 2 counties (Las Animas, Otero)
US491 - 2 counties (Montezuma, Dolores)
US550 - 4 counties (La Plata, San Juan, Ouray, Montrose)
 
No Colorado interstates are successful.

[WillWeaverRVA]

US 58 comes close in Virginia, if you include business routes created when bypasses were built:

- Jonesville, Lee County
- Gate City, Scott County
- City of Bristol
- Abingdon, Washington County (bypasses in concurrency with I-81, but part of the bypass is within town limits)
- Independence, Grayson County
- City of Galax
- Hillsville, Carroll County (bypasses, but parts of the bypass are within town limits)
- (Misses Floyd, Floyd County)
- Stuart, Patrick County (bypasses, but the bypass is within town limits)
- City of Martinsville, Henry County (bypasses, US 58 Business runs through town)
- (Misses Chatham, Pittsylvania County)
- City of Danville
- (Misses Halifax, Halifax County)
- Boydton, Mecklenburg County
- Lawrenceville, Brunswick County
- City of Emporia, Greensville County
- Courtland, Southampton County (bypasses, US 58 Business runs through town)
- City of Suffolk (bypasses downtown, US 58 Business serves downtown)
- City of Chesapeake (doesn't serve the government center area, but meh)
- City of Portsmouth (actually serves downtown)
- City of Norfolk (actually serves downtown)
- City of Virginia Beach (actually serves what could be considered downtown, plus the oceanfront)

[wxfree]

This is a fun topic.

In Texas I looked for routes of at least 100 miles.

SH 17: Pecos (Reeves County), Fort Davis (Jeff Davis County), Marfa (Presidio County)

US 380 crosses mostly lined-up square counties with seats near the middle: Plains (Yoakum County), Brownfield (Terry County), Tahoka (Lynn County), Post (Garza County), Jayton (Kent County), Aspermont (Stonewall County), Haskell (Haskell County), Throckmorton (Throckmorton County), Graham (Young County), Jacksboro (Jack County), Decatur (Wise County), Denton (Denton County), McKinney (Collin County), Greenville (Hunt County)
14 counties

US 180 does the same thing one set of counties to the south, 10 counties from Weatherford to New Mexico, but it enters Texas again to the southwest and misses two county seats.

SH 22: Hamilton (Hamilton County), Meridian (Bosque County), Hillsboro (Hill County), Corsicana (Navarro County)

FM 4: Jacksboro (Jack County), Palo Pinto (Palo Pinto County), Granbury (Hood County), Cleburne (Johnson County)

I-27: Lubbock (Lubbock County), Plainview (Hale County), Tulia (Swisher County), Canyon (Randall County), Amarillo (Potter County)

Looking at the maps I learned something new.  I pretty much know the counties in Texas, but I don't know all of the county seats.  I had no idea there was one called San Diego.  It's the seat of Duval County, south of San Antonio and west of Corpus Christi.  While it's the county seat, it's at the east edge of the county, and partly over the line in Jim Wells County.

[DandyDan]

MN:

TH 61 (though US 61 did not and still does not qualify in its truncated form)
TH 371 (also qualified as US 371 with Bemidji added that modern TH 371 doesn't go to)

former: US 16 (modern TH 16 does not qualify)

US 16 never qualified because it missed Caledonia, the county seat of Houston County.

[Flint1979]

US-41 hits all the county seats on it's path in Michigan:

• Eagle River, Keweenaw (just barely per Google Maps, although being an unincorporated place I'm not sure what is used as its boundaries)
• L'Anse, Baraga
• Marquette, Marquette
• Escanaba, Delta
• Menominee, Menominee

US-41 doesn't go through or anywhere near Munising.

[hbelkins]

Off the top of my head, KY 40 -- Salyersville (Magoffin), Paintsville (Johnson), Inez (Martin.)

[GaryV]

anywhere near Munising

Ah, I missed that it cut through the corner of Luce County. Sorry.