New Mexico had two cross-State highways in the Joint Board's plan. 560: From Gallup, New Mexico, to Cortez, Colorado. 460: From Los Lunas, New Mexico, to Route No. 360: From Amarillo, Texas to Farwell, Clovis, New Mexico, Roswell, El Paso. 260: From Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Okemah, Henryetta. 160: Baxter Springs, Kansas to Coffeyville, Independence. This report assigned the number '60' to a Chicago-to-Los Angeles crescent route, with five branches numbered east to west: U.S. The Joint Board's numbering plan was contained in its October 1925 report.

The routes described in the article were reconfigured as parts of interstate highways by the time the Joint Board applied its numbering plan to the national map.

system, the route was known as the Navajo Trail and also was included in the National Park to Park Highway (a loop connecting many of the National Parks west of the Mississippi River). The article added that another New Mexico route had been added during a regional meeting held in Denver on September 9, 1925: This route established a connection between Gallup, The Mesa Verde National Park, and Salt Lake City, and is described in New Mexico as from Gallup via Shiprock to Cortez, Colorado. From Caballo, via Hillsboro, Silver City, Lordsburg and Rodeo to Douglas, Arizona.

From Willard via Scholle, Abo Pass, Socorro, Datil to Springerville, Arizona.From Glenrio via Tucumcari and Santa Rosa to Las Vegas.From the Texas Line near Clayton via Des Moines to Raton.From Las Cruces via Deming and Lordsburg to Duncan, Arizona.From Texico via Clovis, Willard, Estancia, Tijeras Canyon, Albuquerque and Gallup to Holbrook, Arizona.From Clovis via Roswell and Alamogordo to El Paso.From Raton, via Las Vegas, Santa Fe and Albuquerque to El Paso.The routes listed in the article were not yet numbered, or arranged in their final configuration as part of interstate routes: The September 1925 issue of New Mexico Highway Journal listed routes that had been identified during the final conference in August of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways in Washington. 666, the New Mexico designations are of interest. Three-digit numbers were assigned to alternate routes and branches of main roads.įor the history of U.S. Transcontinental and main east-west roads were assigned two-digit numbers ending in zero, while the main north-south routes carried numbers ending in one. East-west roads were given even numbers north-south roads, odd. The numbering plan devised by the Joint Board on Interstate Highways had several components. This is the story of why it was numbered U.S. At the request of State transportation officials, the route became U.S. 666 in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. On May 31, 2003, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials approved a new number for the remaining segments of U.S.

Route 666 by David Pringle