Kansas Roads - US 66 - Baxter Springs

in Baxter Springs



The original route of US 66 breaks from Alt. US 69 and heads east on 30th St., curving back north on Roberts Rd., and formerly continuing straight onto what's now Military Ave. The curve from 30th onto Roberts in the 3rd and 4th photos is not original, but obviously was put in not long after 1926. Including Military Ave. as the second smoothing of the original curve and I-44 as the final routing of US 66, and the one that pulled it out of Kansas, the alignment that heads straight and makes a hard left on Roberts is an old alignment of an old alignment of an old alignment of an old highway.


So, just how old is this double blinker above the Roberts Rd./Alt. US 69 intersection? It might date back as far as the Military Ave. realignment, or the first time thereafter a traffic concern arose.


Old US 66 turns left on 3rd St. and hangs a right on 50th St. - the straight-through alignment didn't exist then - and you'll want to do the same to see the historic arch bridge over Brush Creek at Beasley Rd.


You can even drive over it, but only WB. You could probably walk over it, stopping for photos along the way, given the nonexistent back-country traffic.


Coming back east on Beasley Rd. to Alt. US 69 and the beginning of short K-66, the original alignment was cut off so that the skewed intersection could be replaced by one at 90 degrees. But then Kansas came in and converted it into a roundabout anyway, where skews don't matter nearly as much for safety, so they should have restored this to service and put the roundabout down here instead of up there.

Continue east on old US 66 to K-66

Into Oklahoma on old US 66
To regular US 69
Baxter Springs (US 66) Non-Roads
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