Rural roads

[kphoger]

Here's a thread for minor rural roads, roads that aren't signed state highways.  Maybe they're county roads, former alignments, or whatever.  Show us what driving in your area really looks like.

I'll start with some pictures from Saturday on my way to go camping at Toronto Lake.  These are from Wilson and Woodson Counties, Kansas.

People who say Kansas is flat generally haven't gotten off the Interstate.  I suspect this road may have been a former alignment of K-96; I even saw a mile marker on the side of the road.  Between HH Road and Decatur Road, looking east on what Google Maps calls 1700 Road.


Decatur Road, on my way north to Coyville.  I have about five miles of gravel along my route.  Kansas has an extensive system of gravel county roads.  There's even a numbering system for the 'important' ones, what KsDOT calls Rural Secondary roads, though these numbers are not signed in real life.  This one, on paper, is numbered RS-1124.


Entering Coyville, population 46.  My road designation changes here, though I'm still following what's signed as Decatur Road.  In a few blocks, I'll be following (on paper) RS-1828, which ends at K-105.


Decatur Road, approaching the last big climb before I hit K-105, between Coyville and Toronto.


Looking south back down Decatur Road.  I take K-105 west from here; it crosses the Toronto Lake dam, then ends at a split near our campground.


The southern terminus of K-105.  Just behind me is the left fork, a gravel county road which leads out of the area.  Go straight here, on the gravel, and you can start wrapping around the west side of the lake; veer right, and you'll come to the shallow-water boat ramp; back up several yards, turn right, and you'll find our campground.

[xcellntbuy]

Nice and peaceful.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Old US 42 in Johnsville (unincorporated hamlet), NE corner of Morrow County, Ohio.


Former county road left semi-abandoned after Delaware Reservoir was constructed in 1948 (northern Delaware County, Ohio)


Old US 61 in Lula, Mississippi (unincorporated hamlet), about 20 miles north of Clarksdale (70 miles south of Memphis)


1920s routing of the Lincoln Highway between Burns and Cheyenne, Wyoming


1913 routing of the Lincoln Highway in Eastern Nevada (near the Utah border)


Two lane section of US 52 between Welch and Bluefield West Virginia.

[Takumi]

Part of secondary route 708 (old VA 38) in Amelia County, east of Mannboro. This hasn't been primary since 1951.











This goes on for a good 12-15 miles. I like old rural roads like this because, among other things, they often have abandoned businesses or evidence thereof; this road has signs for a grocery store that's been gone for decades.

[mobilene]

Most of my rural roads photos are of old highway alignments. I've got a ton of 'em; I love to explore the old alignments.  Here are some of old US 50 in Indiana.

Jennings County:

The old road by mobilene, on Flickr

Lawrence County:

Old US 50 by mobilene, on Flickr

Martin County:

Old US 50 by mobilene, on Flickr

Knox County, essentially abandoned:

Old US 50 by mobilene, on Flickr

More Knox County. Dig that crazy single center stripe.

Old US 50 by mobilene, on Flickr

[NE2]

Not my photo. Old Dixie Highway between Bunnell and Palatka.

[mobilene]

Old US 40 in eastern Illinois.

Driveable brick National Road segment by mobilene, on Flickr

And now a few pics of US 36's original alignment in western Indiana.

Hendricks Co.

Old US 36 by mobilene, on Flickr

Parke Co.

Old US 36 by mobilene, on Flickr

Parke Co.

PP-OO in Indiana by mobilene, on Flickr

[kphoger]

If this is essentially abandoned, then who does the mowing?  I notice the vegetation is quite tall yet hardly growing over the white lines at all.

Knox County, essentially abandoned:

Old US 50 by mobilene, on Flickr

[agentsteel53]

neat stuff!  thanks for sharing

[texaskdog]

Old US 40 in eastern Illinois.

Driveable brick National Road segment by mobilene, on Flickr

And now a few pics of US 36's original alignment in western Indiana.

Hendricks Co.

Old US 36 by mobilene, on Flickr

Parke Co.

Old US 36 by mobilene, on Flickr

Parke Co.

PP-OO in Indiana by mobilene, on Flickr

You posted a "bridge out" sign w/o going up to the old location? 

[formulanone]

Loop Road in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties

This was supposed to be the original alignment for US 94...the money for the Tamiami Trail project ran dry, but it was then re-funded by Barron Collier, under the pretext that it stay in Collier County, and not mainland-Monroe County.

So this "old alignment", which was cleared away, became Florida State Road 94, after US 94 became US 41. Then, it was decommissioned in the 1970s to County Road 94. Since it's part of the National Park Service, it's essentially neither US/SR/CR, et cetera. But it's still known as Loop Road...

Near the eastern entrance to the road, it goes through a residential area, on Miccosukee Indian lands. This was the only moving vehicle I passed the entire time.


It winds though the "ghost town" of Pinecrest, which has no services.




"Proof" it was once State Road 94? This was on a private residence.


Last bit of pavement before...


...ground clearance, anyone?


I mostly drove right up against the side of the puddles, which were about 6-8" deep at times.


Higher and drier land, although apparently, even less used than most of quiet Loop Road.


The big curve at Sweetwater Strand sends you back north towards US 41.


Careful out there...this is the Everglades!


At the end...CR 94, now?


At the end, there was this warning sign, which was marked from 1966 on the back of it!

[NE2]

This was supposed to be the original alignment for US 94...the money for the Tamiami Trail project ran dry, but it was then re-funded by Barron Collier, under the pretext that it stay in Collier County, and not mainland-Monroe County.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamiami_Trail this all happened before 1926, so US 94 was always on the current Tamiami Trail. The SR 94 designation was likely coincidental.

[agentsteel53]

nice gator.

what's going on that there's a road closure sign well in the background behind the UNIMPROVED ROAD sign?

[formulanone]

nice gator.

what's going on that there's a road closure sign well in the background behind the UNIMPROVED ROAD sign?

The northern/western road end at Loop Road, signalling it was washed out. It said Local Traffic only, but being only one county away, and having made trek though once before, meant I was local enough, in my opinion. My insurance company probably wouldn't be as thrilled had I screwed up. I had my car checked over at a dealership a few weeks later, where there was nothing amiss. I didn't use the A/C, because I was concerned I'd get the compressor pulley and belt wet or jammed with mud (there's a pretty good shield underneath it, I found out).

Funny how its 25 mph in sections (some are posted as 15 mph), but throughout most of it, I barely topped 10-15.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamiami_Trail this all happened before 1926, so US 94 was always on the current Tamiami Trail. The SR 94 designation was likely coincidental.

I suppose "94" fits the modern Florida State Road Department grid, which likely makes a little more sense; it probably had a pre-1945 number of 27 or something like that. Definitely the red-headed stepchild of Florida's road system.

[agentsteel53]

The road was washed out. It said local traffic only, but being only one county away (and having made trek though once before), meant I was local enough, in my opinion. My insurance company probably wouldn't be as thrilled had I screwed up.

washed out as in those puddles in one of those photos - or was it worse when the closure was established?

I tend to view "local traffic" not as "traffic familiar with the area", but rather "N miles down the road, the road is impassable.  if you're not going that far, great.  if you are... well, tough luck."

[formulanone]

It was at its worst though the most southern sections of Loop Road -- for about 5-6 miles, it was really wet and muddy. Any decent truck could have handled it...I was going on sheer bravado by that point; usually in a month like December or January, there isn't that much water at all, even being roughly 2-5 feet about sea level.

This is Janes Memorial Drive, for example. Nice and dry, no problems:



There was a little rain the days leading up to my adventure. I wouldn't do it at all in July, unless you had a vehicle like this:



...which is essentially a modified tractor, since there appears to be nothing more than a solid axle in the front. Then again, it's so hot and humid then, I'd probably prefer a helicopter.

[agentsteel53]

personally, I'd surf on the back of a gator.

[Mapmikey]

The 1941 AAA map of Florida shows the road as Route 27

Mapmikey

[Ian]

PA 331 westbound near the West Virginia state line


And crossing into West Virginia on WV 67 east of Bethany






Sebasco Road (Old ME 217) in Phippsburg, ME

[NE2]

The 1941 AAA map of Florida shows the road as Route 27

As was the main Tamiami Trail from Fort Myers to Miami. The loop was added legislatively as an alternate route in 1939, though it seems to have already been designated as such (official state maps show it as 27A in 1934 and 27 in 1936).

[Brian556]

Hill County Rd 4281 (OLD US 81) Hill County, Texas:

[mobilene]

I'm totally digging this thread!

As for the "Bridge Out" sign on Old US 36 -- Google Maps showed that no bridge was back there; indeed, the road even disappears a bit beyond this sign, though it's not hard to figure out its path. 

And as for the "essentially abandoned" Old US 50 -- I said essentially because clearly some care was given to the road.  But it dead ends up there and there's nothing to go to beyond where I took the photo.  The day I was out there I found some large construction machinery parked out at the end; perhaps that's permanent.

Here is some old US 50 in Illinois.  This first shot is the old road just after it used to cross over the Wabash River from Indiana.


Brick segments of old US 50 by mobilene, on Flickr

Abandoned but mostly driveable, in eastern Illinois the old alignment of US 50 parallels the current alignment in most places.  There was a thread on MTR a long time ago about this being this way because this was originally supposed to be I-64; the westbound lanes would have been built here.


Old US 50 in Illinois by mobilene, on Flickr

There are three steel truss bridges, closed, on the abandoned alignment.


Abandoned US 50 bridge over Big Muddy River by mobilene, on Flickr

Now for some old State Road 37 in Indiana, the segment between Indianapolis and Bloomington.  Nice old pony truss bridge:


Pony truss bridge by mobilene, on Flickr

I am standing at a dead end taking this photo; a bridge behind me was removed.


Old SR 37 by mobilene, on Flickr

A long old alignment heads north out of Bloomington; it has been freshly paved when I passed through.


Old SR 37 by mobilene, on Flickr

[kphoger]

Abandoned but mostly driveable, in eastern Illinois the old alignment of US 50 parallels the current alignment in most places.  There was a thread on MTR a long time ago about this being this way because this was originally supposed to be I-64; the westbound lanes would have been built here.


Old US 50 in Illinois by mobilene, on Flickr

There are three steel truss bridges, closed, on the abandoned alignment.


Abandoned US 50 bridge over Big Muddy River by mobilene, on Flickr

When I lived in the area, I used to love seeing those segments when I was driving my delivery route.  The top one looks like what I used to see around Sumner, but also farther west.  My favorites were the bridges, and I always wished I could still drive on them.  Fortunately, there's still a beautiful steel truss bridge on the Route 161 Extension between Johnsonville and Iuka Road, as well as one on what is basically the same road much farther east between Mount Erie and Route 130–both of which I got to see more regularly.

[Alex]

The bulk of the photos posted makes me think the thread should be retitled "Lost Highways". I have loved the array of photos posted.

[kphoger]

The bulk of the photos posted makes me think the thread should be retitled "Lost Highways". I have loved the array of photos posted.

Well, it wasn't my intent to start a thread just for former alignments, but it seems to have morphed into that.