If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Let's add a digit to 88, says Arizona
Hi All,
For many years, Arizona State Route 88 happily strummed along between Apache Junction and the outskirts of Globe. Along the way, the route briefly degraded to dirt-road status. This downgrade certainly did not stop adventurous motorists, since the nearby Theodore Roosevelt Dam offered a bit of scenery and non-urban charm. So imagine my surprise when I visited what was to be the eastern terminus of Route 88. It was actually the southern terminus of Route 188! What happened? Sometime after 2003, the state decided to have Route 188 annex the eastern half of Route 88. The reassignment seems logical anyways, because the aforementioned stretch seemed more longitudinal than latitudinal. Route 188 was previously assigned as a longitudinal route between the Theodore Roosevelt Dam and its northern terminus. Why not find out where the northern terminus is, plot some geographic coordinates, and perhaps catch some desert scenery at the Arizona State Route 188 profile? http://worldwide-hwys.calrog.com/az-188.html This photograph is brought to you by the Worldwide Highway Library, the best collection of highway-sign and -scenery photographs on the web. With seven years of experience under the belt, the Library has been expanding its waistline faster than Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore ever did w/ theirs! Tsk tsk. Cheers, Carl Rogers "Adding human experience to highway enthusiasm" ******** Calrog.com, http://www.calrog.com : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An integrated media arm in Turn-of-the-Century PC Development, International Highway Research, and Interpersonal Psychology. Has served your home country and ninety-seven of its worldwide neighbours since 2000, through Internet downstream and published works. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/calrog ******** |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Let's add a digit to 88, says Arizona
In article >,
"Carl Rogers" > wrote: > Why not find out where the northern terminus is, plot some geographic > coordinates, and perhaps catch some desert scenery at the Arizona > State Route 188 profile? > > http://worldwide-hwys.calrog.com/az-188.html I agree that this is a beautiful road and makes more sense with its current route. My wife and I have bicycled the entire current AZ 188 while biking from Flagstaff through Happy Jack and Payson to Globe. Paul -- Paul Anderson OpenVMS Engineering Hewlett-Packard Company |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
AZ-188 history: Let's add a digit to 88, says Arizona
Some history:
AZ-188 (north section from AZ-87 to Roosevelt Dam), was all-dirt until the early 1970s when they bypassed Pumpkin Center with about a half mile of new road. The dirt section began again just past that. The rest of it was not paved until the 1980s, then the dam was bypassed but that was not done until 1990. As you hit the north end of the bridge on the lake side was a place known as 'Motel Point'. There was a structure there in the 1920s and touring groups would present things there, it was a motel, hence the name. I saw the foundation in the 60s and 70s there. I do not know how the end came for the building. Also in 1990 the section from Roosevelt Dam itself to the town of Roosevelt was bypassed and the lower road can be seen on the lake side of the hill as you go by and part of that is used to access the workers housing. The workers housing exists from at least the 30s, and many houses go back to the 40s at least. The 'great cottonwood' you see about midway at the lowest three houses was planted in 1947, and has been a major landmark even to those who didn't care about the houses, I knew someone in South Dakota who knew of it. The town of Roosevelt is where the 1990 bypass ends. It passes almost over the old 'Frazier's Store' property which included the post office for many years, that store was on the south side of the old road. The store burned in the 1970s. In 1972, an infamous curve known to many as 'Cadillac Curve' kist east of the turnoff for Tonto National Monument, plus some other bad curves was realigned and straightened from about a mile east of the Tonto National Monument turnoff to the Pinto Creek Bridge, they bypassed the old buckboard bridge there as well. That was the old area known by two names, Pinto Creek and Sportsmans Haven. That interestingly is the 'new' Roosevelt. The post office moved there in the 1980s. You can find an even earlier alignment east and north of the current alignment by the National Monument by getting off at the 'Grapevine Airport' turnoff, about a half mile south of the Monument turnoff. There's more of this sort of thing where they realigned the road in 1972, plus that earlier road. Also, I understand there is a massive saguaro, some say it finally fell a few years ago, near the Grapevine Airport as well. The 'Airport' was actually just a wide place that general aviation planes could use, we never saw anyone actually use it. Also around 1972, the section from the last big bridge to US-60 on the south end of AZ-88 on the hill between Globe and Miami, now apparently 188, was also realigned, another old bridge was bypassed and torn down as well. There used to be a 'Y' turn-in that was straightened out around 1967 where the present junction is, that Y favored southbound to westbound transitions, it was messy getting from westbound to northbound, that explains why they did that back then. The road does continue south past that junction, but it was a local road going to Claypool, and for some reason ADOT left that one out of the 'connections' that Arizona's highways are designed to make. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Arizona State Route 266 | Carl ROGÉRS | Driving | 8 | June 20th 07 11:18 PM |
Video of Arizona Route 260 | Carl Rogers | Driving | 1 | December 14th 06 12:41 AM |
Jeepers in Arizona A Question | HarryS | Jeep | 17 | April 25th 05 09:17 PM |
Next Step In Arizona Emissions Changes | Laurie S. | Ford Mustang | 10 | April 17th 05 04:11 PM |
SUV Bombed in Arizona | Joe Pig | General | 0 | February 3rd 04 10:16 PM |