State Route 140

Nevada State Route 140 was commissioned in the mid-1960s and kept its designation in the state route renumbering of 1976. The state route used to begin in Downtown Winnemucca, then followed a shared alignment with U.S. 95 to the current eastern terminus of SR 140. In 1979, SR 140 was truncated to its current routing, with no overlap with U.S. 95. As originally conceived, SR 140 followed the historic Winnemucca-to-the-Sea Highway, which starts at an eight-foot diameter redwood tree trunk in downtown Winnemucca (at the corner of Winnemucca Boulevard and Melarkey Street) and ends in Crescent City. SR 140 used to also begin at this point, then turn north with U.S. 95 to meet its current eastern terminus. The Winnemucca-to-the-Sea Highway follows U.S. 95, SR 140, Oregon 140, Interstate 5, and U.S. 199, ending at Crescent City.

Although SR 140 comes suspiciously close to the former routing of U.S. 40 and connects to Oregon Highway 140, SR 140 was never commissioned or signed as U.S. 140. U.S. 140 previously was designated in the mid to late 1920s in New Jersey along modern New Jersey Route 540, and between the 1930s and 1960s, U.S. 140 ran from Baltimore, Maryland, northwest to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, via MD 140 and PA 97.

A little map research shows that in 1938, Oregon 140 was signed Oregon 66. SR 140 was signed SR 8A (one of about four discontinuous stretches of road to carry this designation). In 1965, we still had the same numbering situation (Oregon 66 and SR 8A). In 1967, Oregon 140 was commissioned, but there was still SR 8A. In 1968, the Highway 140 numbering was in both states. Highway 140 was likely commissioned to create more contiguous east-west routes for the southern part of Oregon and to provide access into the sparsely populated northwestern Nevada region. Note that Nevada 140 has been paved and well maintained since the late 1960s.

Page Updated Friday June 22, 2018.