Did US 66 originally go through Picher, Oklahoma?

[NE2]

Take a close look at the 1926 map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1926us.jpg
The 1926 Kansas official clearly shows US 60 going west from Baxter Springs (the 1927 map adds the road south but doesn't label either):

The 1927 Oklahoma official puts US 66 through Quapaw, while 1926 doesn't show any U.S. Routes (but the road through Quapaw wasn't yet a state highway).

[pianocello]

Interesting. Both maps you linked seem to indicate that it did.

Do you know why it ended up going through Quapaw instead of Picher? It looks like population-wise, Picher had more people than Quapaw through at least the 1970s. If all else is equal, you'd think the logic would be to serve the town with higher population.

[TXtoNJ]

My best guess is that it would have been to bypass local mining traffic.

[Mapmikey]

1927 Clasons also shows it via Pilcher.

Looking at AASHO documentation it is inconclusive whether US 66 was moved to present routing prior to the official start date of Nov 1926 (KS description of 66 says runs south of Baxter Springs to OK (but given the short west then south route to Pilcher would it have read any differently); oddly, 160/166 description changed from Baxter Springs in 1925 to "point near Galena" in Nov 1926, so that isn't helpful either).  US 60 was definitely posted in Kansas on the Pilcher routing though...

The 1924-26 Oklahoma State Highway Report, dated 1/1/27 shows no OK 39 at all which does lend credence that US 66 was at least routed via Pilcher temporarily.  Oklahoma said in Aug 1927 they had posted 100% of their US routes.

BTW, There are interim versions of the Nov 1926 map that showed for instance the changes made in Jan 1926 from the original 1925 list.  Does anyone know where online there is a full copy of these maps before Nov 1926?

[Scott5114]

https://www.odot.org/memorial/legal/us66.htm shows the Oklahoma Transportation Commission establishing US-66 on December 7, 1926. The description on that item is "Original Designation from the Texas State Line near Texola [...] to the Kansas State Line at Baxter Springs". There are no additional Transportation Commission items for US-66 until 1935. That would seem to indicate that as far as Oklahoma is officially concerned, it never went via Picher. Officially, anyway.

It's possible that US-66 was unofficially detoured through Picher until a suitable road was built along the ultimate US-66 route and that's why it showed as such on maps.

[Avalanchez71]

What type of surface would the road have been at that time?

[NE2]

What type of surface would the road have been at that time?

Cow shit.

[kphoger]

Well, that was out of left field...

[Avalanchez71]

Doesn't the map on the original post have a key?

[WillWeaverRVA]

Well, that was out of left field...

Well, given that it was 1926 he might've been more correct than one would otherwise expect.

[Avalanchez71]

Well, that was out of left field...

Well, given that it was 1926 he might've been more correct than one would otherwise expect.

You mean cow dung?

[Mapmikey]

Doesn't the map on the original post have a key?

yes.  It characterizes US 60 south to OK line as "sand clay or gravel"

The map comes from the 1926 Kansas "Other" pdf in the AASHO database.

[Avalanchez71]

The map linked at the top indicates that US 72 was to stay in Tennessee longer than present.  Looks interesting.

[Mapmikey]

The map linked at the top indicates that US 72 was to stay in Tennessee longer than present.  Looks interesting.

Which it did, from 1926-32.

Was truncated to Selmer, TN 1932-34 and finally moved to its familiar path across Mississippi for 1935 and onward