Mystery routes

[Scott5114]

Anyone ever follow one of those odd state highways that spur off into parts unknown? You know the ones; the routes that you look at on a map and just shoot off into some big blank space on the map, and then end at some arbitrary point for no real reason. And you look at it and go If you have, what did you find there?

Jake, please regale us with your tale of FM 2119!

[Hellfighter]

Like US-400? 

[Scott5114]

No. Believe it or not US 400 is occasionally useful for going somewhere meaningful. 

[froggie]

Mississippi and Maryland are full of those...

[TheStranger]

Route 213 in Los Angeles County seems to fit this description well...in the Central Valley, Route 59's northern terminus does too.

[agentsteel53]

California routes 180, 190, 168, and various other unconstructed Sierra crossings end up being "routes to nowhere". 

the best, though, is Texas Farm Road 2119.  Rand McNally labels it as a connecting route heading north out of Pecos to US-62.  Wrong!  After thirty-seven miles, it is a dead end, with a gate in the middle of the road! 

I did the 37 miles back to Pecos averaging 101 mph. 

[hm insulators]

Arizona 366 and Arizona 266.

Many of the state highways in Hawaii, especially on Kauai, dead-end after only partially encircling the island or penetrating a few miles inland.

[Michael]

the best, though, is Texas Farm Road 2119.  Rand McNally labels it as a connecting route heading north out of Pecos to US-62.  Wrong!  After thirty-seven miles, it is a dead end, with a gate in the middle of the road! 

FAIL!

Anyway, I like to go on roads to see where they go.  I always have.

One dead-end street that stands out to me is John Walsh Blvd. in Auburn, NY (map).  It was supposed to connect NY 5 to NY 34, but it's only half a mile long.  Worse yet, the city doesn't even own the land to complete it!  Now, it's just an alternate entrance to Wal-Mart (on the right of the map).

[leifvanderwall]

1) M-188: goes to a VFW Home.
2) M-221: In the U.P., supposed to go to Brimley, but it is actually to 6 Mile Rd.
3) M-93: Yeah, it goes through Grayling, but it starts at an army base ends at Hartwick Pines State Park.
4) M-37 from Traverse City to Old Mission , actually ends at Old Mission Peninsula County Park.
5) US 41 North Terminus ends at a Road Ends sign
6) M-119 : ends at Cross Village , believe me there is not much there.
7) M-149 8)M-183
9) Florida 59
10) Florida 267 from Florida 20 to Newport
11) County 565 starts at Fl. 50 in Mascotte but ends at a railroad crossing and converts to a dirt road to nowhere
12) Ohio 576 from US 20 to Michigan State Line converts to Hillsdale Rd. ; noone from the Buckeye State knows the county road goes to Hillsdale.

[xonhulu]

Washington state has a few of these: SR 102, SR 263, SR 194, to name a few.

In Oregon, there are also a few.  For example, OR 501 just goes 11 miles south of the small town of Alsea and ends at a junction with 2 county roads in the middle of a small valley.  However, there's an explanation: it's a remnant of a older, planned-to-be-longer highway which would've gone through to OR 36 in the town of Deadwood.  A few other of these remnant state highways exist, although most are still unsigned, like OR 413 which is gravel for its last 5 miles and ends in the ghost town of Cornucopia.

[Rover_0]

UT-289--A small loop in Cedar City to put Southern Utah University on the state highway system.

[yakra]

ME43 ends 4 mi. ahead

[Scott5114]

FM 2465 in Childress County, Texas...  Starts off as a promising-looking spur to allow easy clinching of Hardeman County, then randomly you see a "PAVEMENT ENDS" and "↑ COUNTY ROAD O" sign and are unceremoniously dumped onto a dirt county road! According to the map, it appears to meet a similar end at its western terminus as well.

[agentsteel53]

FM 2465 in Childress County, Texas...  Starts off as a promising-looking spur to allow easy clinching of Hardeman County, then randomly you see a "PAVEMENT ENDS" and "↑ COUNTY ROAD O" sign and are unceremoniously dumped onto a dirt county road! According to the map, it appears to meet a similar end at its western terminus as well.

don't forget FM 94, which is randomly closed at a sufficient quantity of bridges to prevent clinching of Briscoe and Floyd counties to the west.  Of course, it is not signed as being closed in any semblance of a strategic manner - gotta go down 94 and discover the horrid, horrid truth for one's self.

(at least the construction zones at all the closed bridges had actual workers present and engaged in labor - which puts it above 99% of orange-hell speed traps!)

[Scott5114]

(at least the construction zones at all the closed bridges had actual workers present and engaged in labor - which puts it above 99% of orange-hell speed traps!)

Not the one leading to Hall County! It simply had random-ass barricades in the middle of the sticks!

[D-Dey65]

11) County 565 starts at Fl. 50 in Mascotte but ends at a railroad crossing and converts to a dirt road to nowhere

That railroad crossing you're referring to must be the General James A. Van Fleet State Trail.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/gwt/guide/regions/eastcentral/trails/general_james.htm

[Roadgeek Adam]

Go onto Farm To Market Route 2424 in Kent, TX - continuation of TX 118 northward, ends in the mountains at other roads

[keithvh]

FM 2465 in Childress County, Texas...  Starts off as a promising-looking spur to allow easy clinching of Hardeman County, then randomly you see a "PAVEMENT ENDS" and "↑ COUNTY ROAD O" sign and are unceremoniously dumped onto a dirt county road! According to the map, it appears to meet a similar end at its western terminus as well.

don't forget FM 94, which is randomly closed at a sufficient quantity of bridges to prevent clinching of Briscoe and Floyd counties to the west.  Of course, it is not signed as being closed in any semblance of a strategic manner - gotta go down 94 and discover the horrid, horrid truth for one's self.

(at least the construction zones at all the closed bridges had actual workers present and engaged in labor - which puts it above 99% of orange-hell speed traps!)

OK --- I know I am bumping this thread after SEVEN YEARS --- but I tried to take FM 94 west out of Childress County this past Tuesday to get a clinch of all of Hall, Cottle and Motley Counties.

Yep --- CLOSED just north of the FM 1440 intersection, before you reach Cottle County!  No signage!

Unbelievable, nothing has changed after seven years!

[vdeane]

Had I known about NY 421 seven years ago, I would have mentioned it.  It's a random state highway in the middle of nowhere branching from NY 30 heading west.  It ends four miles later when the pavement ends.  Other than a couple houses off a former reference route near NY 30 and a campground, there is literally nothing on the road.

[7/8]

For me, a map of Northern Ontario has plenty of "mystery routes"; long isolated highways which seem to lead to nowhere. One of the more extreme one's is highway 652. There are no communities on its 150 km route, and no services. It's only purpose is to serve a gold mine, but of course, road maps don't show the private mine, so it's look like a useless road

[Max Rockatansky]

Arizona 99 dumps you right into the middle of Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest on the south terminus.  You can follow the forest routes to AZ 260 but they are pretty much just dirt tracts, so I always wondered what the hell ADOT was thinking?  Even the north terminus of AZ 99 ends a BIA route...in this case BIA 15.

[triplemultiplex]

There are dozens upon dozens of these dead-end state highways to nowhere in New Mexico.  Many of them turn into horrendously washboarded gravel.
Occasionally there's a state park or a former community at the end, but just as often, it's a random junction with another gravel road and a sign that says "end state maintenance".

[wxfree]

the best, though, is Texas Farm Road 2119.  Rand McNally labels it as a connecting route heading north out of Pecos to US-62.  Wrong!  After thirty-seven miles, it is a dead end, with a gate in the middle of the road! 

That road was established to service a sulfur mine.  The place was named Rustler Springs after the Rustler Hills to the west.  I know someone who worked out there recently at an oil field near the old mine site.  To add to the mysteriousness of the location, there's a story about why the mine shut down.  Supposedly, a large pocket of H₂S came up out of the ground and killed the miners.  Afterward, the mine was shut down.  It's kinda like the story of Big John, but with a lot more death.  These days, the area is surrounded by sensors to detect the poison.

[coatimundi]

California has a few. Most provide access to prisons or forest routes or other county routes. SR 202 is one. It dead ends at a prison.
I think Texas is the king of these roads though. You have a lot of random FM/RM routes that just seem to dead end into space, mostly at ranches. Strangely they use the FM/RM system for those prison dead-end roads too, like FM 655 that provides access to the Rosharon Unit. Most of the route is actually inside the gate and, thus, not public. But then there's SR 168, in Galveston, that provides access to the Coast Guard station and, I believe, ends at the gate.

Arizona 99 dumps you right into the middle of Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest on the south terminus.  You can follow the forest routes to AZ 260 but they are pretty much just dirt tracts, so I always wondered what the hell ADOT was thinking?  Even the north terminus of AZ 99 ends a BIA route...in this case BIA 15.

The northern section of 99 was supposed to be longer. It was originally supposed to connect to the eastern end of AZ 64 and provide another route to the Grand Canyon without having to go through Flagstaff and so far up in elevation. I would assume that the Dine killed this idea pretty quickly. It's still a nice way to bypass Flag and an easy way into the rez.
The southern section of 99 was built to provide access to sawmills at the edge of the national forest. Those mills have closed, and the state has tried to get Navajo County to take over that section because it's difficult to maintain with all the snow it gets. Navajo County has no reason to take it over though, it seems, because nothing has happened in 20 years.
https://www.aaroads.com/guide.php?page=s0099az

That link also mentions the faulty mapping that shows 99 continuing to 260, which is unfortunate because that can get you in a lot of trouble in the winter. 288 is similar. There's a clear path north of Young, after the route ends, to 260, but it ascends the Rim and is not maintained in the winter (it's actually a pretty good road otherwise). However, I've seen digital maps that show 288 going all the way up to 260.

[Quillz]

I would dispute both CA-180 and CA-190. The former puts you in Kings Canyon Nat'l Park, as well as having a turn-off just before that leads back south to CA-198, so while it dead-ends, it does take people somewhere they would want to go. And likewise, CA-190 may end in Quaking Aspen, but the road itself continues and actually does provide access across the Sierra to reach Olancha (and Death Valley). In a perfect world, these forest routes would have been taken over by Caltrans to have a complete, unified CA-190.

However, CA-202 is a perfect example. Exists only to lead you to a state prison, and is a very short route otherwise. CA-59 is another good example, as mentioned, since it just ends at a county road.