Highway 96: Named for a Phone Number?

[route56]

Legend has it that the multi-state route 96 was given that number by one F. W. "Woody" Hockaday of Wichita. Hockaday was an early adopter of something all of us now take for granted: guide signage. He literally spent his own money signing Kansas and parts of the southwest with signs bearing a big red "H." Legend has it that when the state decided to number their highways, they allowed Hockaday to choose the number for the stretch of road having the majority of the Hockaday signs. '96' was his telephone number (this being long before the days of dialing and area codes)

Here's the problem: Kansas was one of the last states to develop a system of numbered highways. The Kansas highway system was developed concurrently with, or possibly after, the US highway system. If the maps have any meaning, K-96 was designated as an extension of the same-numbered highway in Colorado (Missouri's 96 didn't come until later. K-96's first east end was at US 73W near Altamount)

It is still possible that Hockaday had influenced the numbering of the Multi-state highway; however, if he had, it would have been on the Colorado side. I'm wondering if there is any indication that Colorado selected the number 96 at the suggestion of Hockaday, or if the number was selected by coincidence.

[WichitaRoads]

Legend has it that the multi-state route 96 was given that number by one F. W. "Woody" Hockaday of Wichita. Hockaday was an early adopter of something all of us now take for granted: guide signage. He literally spent his own money signing Kansas and parts of the southwest with signs bearing a big red "H." Legend has it that when the state decided to number their highways, they allowed Hockaday to choose the number for the stretch of road having the majority of the Hockaday signs. '96' was his telephone number (this being long before the days of dialing and area codes)

Here's the problem: Kansas was one of the last states to develop a system of numbered highways. The Kansas highway system was developed concurrently with, or possibly after, the US highway system. If the maps have any meaning, K-96 was designated as an extension of the same-numbered highway in Colorado (Missouri's 96 didn't come until later. K-96's first east end was at US 73W near Altamount)

It is still possible that Hockaday had influenced the numbering of the Multi-state highway; however, if he had, it would have been on the Colorado side. I'm wondering if there is any indication that Colorado selected the number 96 at the suggestion of Hockaday, or if the number was selected by coincidence.

Yanno, I was just thinking about K-96's numbering this morning. I always heard the story was that the number 96 was chosen because of the number of signs for Hockaday between the Colorado border and Wichita. And, I was at that old termination point yesterday... of course, it's now a county road intersecting US 160, but hey, it's still there!

ICTRds

[NE2]

http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/f-w-woody-hockaday/12088

Here's the problem: Kansas was one of the last states to develop a system of numbered highways. The Kansas highway system was developed concurrently with, or possibly after, the US highway system.

Not after: http://www.historicalroadmaps.com/KansasPage/1926ClasonsKansasPage/image1.html
Note that other numbers also matched adjacent states: 1 and 7 with Oklahoma, 5 (became US 73 soon) and 14 with Nebraska, 36 with Missouri.

Colorado numbered 96 in 1923, and it fit into the clustering: 94 east from Colo Springs, 100 on US 160. (But 98 was out of place, west of Denver.)

[route56]

Here's the problem: Kansas was one of the last states to develop a system of numbered highways. The Kansas highway system was developed concurrently with, or possibly after, the US highway system.

Not after: http://www.historicalroadmaps.com/KansasPage/1926ClasonsKansasPage/image1.html

I would consider the Clason's Touring Atlas map to be preliminary (it also uses the initial 1925 BPR plan). Per Milestones, the Kansas State highway system was not finalized until September 1926. In any case, Kansas developed its numbered highways during the same time period AASHO was developing theirs.

[Henry]

F. W. "Woody" Hockaday was born in Mount Hope in 1884 and later became a highly successful auto supply and tire company owner in Wichita.

In 1915, he began to mark distances between towns with a big red H and arrow directing the motorist to the next town. By the time he was finished there were Hockaday signs on approximately 60,000 miles of roads from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. "Woody" Hockaday gained fame as the first person to recognize the need for highway marking in the United States.

Hockaday was a great booster of Kansas and Kansas products. He traveled widely distributing miniature sacks of wheat and coined the slogan "Kansas grows the best wheat in the world."

Hockaday died in 1947 and was remembered with great respect by those who recognized his contributions. One Kansas editor said of him, "Woody Hockaday deserves a respectable niche in the history of intelligent and patriotic Kansans who served their state well."

And we all wonder why his name isn't on road atlases. It would certainly give Rand McNally a run for their money!

[bugo]

Looks like this urban legend has been debunked.  Send the information to snopes.

[route56]

Looks like this urban legend has been debunked.  Send the information to snopes.

I'm not ready to call the myth "busted" yet. According to Matt Salek's page, Colorado's 90-series highways highways were, in his words, "placed randomly throughout [the] state." It still leaves enough wiggle room for Mr. Hockaday to have influenced the highway number in Colorado.

[bugo]

It's just highly unlikely that a guy in Kansas would want to pick a Colorado highway number.  I don't buy it.

[route56]

OK, here's my updated (and re-added) history section for K-96:

Legend has it that the number for K-96 came from Wichita service station operator F.W. "Woody" Hockaday, who, out of his own picket, placed signs marking the routes in Kansas, and other parts of the Southwest, with early versions of guide signs, with a big red "H" to plug his business.^[1] According to the legend, The Kansas-Colorado Boulevard had the most number of Hockaday's signs along the highway, so the state allowed him to choose the number. 96 was the phone number for his shop.

However, that legend appears to be apocryphal. By the time Kansas had established its state highway system, the surrounding states had already developed theirs.^[2] In particular, Colorado had numbered its portion of the Kansas-Colorado Boulevard as highway 96 as early as 1923.^[3][4] When Kansas established its highway system, highways that ended at the state line were given the same number as the adjoining state's highway. Thus, K-96 was numbered as an extension of Colorado 96.

From here to the Footnotes, the text is from my previous history writeup. I intend to flesh this out as time permits.

Over the years, many highways were rebuilt, straightening out as many bends as possible and generally trying to make the road shorter.  96 was no exception.  The most prevalent change was between Wichita and Hutchinson.  By 1973, 96 had been changed tp a preety much diagonal route between Wichita and Hutch, creating K-296. The Wichita-Hutchinson part of the route was upgraded as the "State Fair Freeway" (actually a 4-lane expressway) was in the mid 1990's.

96 originally passed through Wichita via US 81 to US 54. by 1995, a new freeway bypass had been built around Wichita.

K-96 East of Wichita was decommissioned in early 1999. K-96 previously followed what is now  US 400 to Fredonia, then turned south and east to US 75 at Neodesha, 96 followed 75 south to Independence, where a rerouted US 160 took over the route to US 69. The connection to Missouri has been turned over to Crawford County.  MO 96, which connected to our highway, has been shortened to MO 171, although MoDOT still maintains their stretch of the road between 171 and the Kansas line as supplemental route YY.

History Notes
¹ Sherry Lamb Schirmer and Theodore A. Wilson, Milestones : a history of the Kansas Highway Commission & the Department of Transportation. (Topeka: Kansas Department of Transportation, 1986) 1-21.
² Schirmer, 2-28.
³ Matthew Salek, Colorado Routes 80-89 [subsection: Colorado Route 96]. Accessed 17 Sept. 1996
⁴ Matthew Salek, Colorado Highways: History. Accessed 17 Sept. 1996

[WichitaRoads]

One correction - K-96 did not follow U.s. 400 all the way to Fredonia originally, only in the brief time it was concurrent with 400 on the new alignment. It used to follow current K-39 to it's old terminus, and then drop south into Fredonia.

ICTRds

[route56]

Thanks to a trip to the Kansas State Historical Society, I am able to officially bust this myth.

KSHS had Polk City Directories for Wichita. Both directories revealed that the number for Hockaday's business was '102,' not '96.'

Richie "Wrong Number" Kennedy

[NE2]

If those directories are pre-1926, perhaps he changed his phone number to 96 to match the highway?

[WichitaRoads]

Thanks to a trip to the Kansas State Historical Society, I am able to officially bust this myth.

KSHS had Polk City Directories for Wichita. Both directories revealed that the number for Hockaday's business was '102,' not '96.'

Richie "Wrong Number" Kennedy

Ah ha! So my version of the story may still have merit. It seems like I read my version in a Dr. Craig Miner book.

ICTRds

[route56]

If those directories are pre-1926, perhaps he changed his phone number to 96 to match the highway?

I just checked the 1929 and 1930 editions. 1929 version was still "Market 102." 1930 saw a change to five digit numbers. Hockaday Auto Supply's new number was "3-2202"

[route56]

I've finally finished my re-write of the highway 96 entry:

http://route56.com/highways/highways.php?hwy=96&seg=1&hist=1

I also found something new in the Kansas State Archives. There was an article in the May 16, 1953 Kansas City Times entitled "K-96 as a U.S. Highway" The article indicated that Colorado and Kansas had petitioned AASHO to designated their multi-state highway 96 as a "federal" route. There was no indication of a proposed number, nor was there any other article indicating why the petition was disapproved [or if CDH and/or the Kansas SHC had withdrawn it]