The first place to stop for learning about Oklahoma highway history is Oklahoma Highway Bridges, the only website devoted to past and current notable highway bridges.
The History of Oklahoma's US highways website details the development of Oklahoma's US numbered highway system from it inception in 1926, the first US highway signage on Oklahoma roads in 1927, to the present day.
An important role of highways was the improving of commerce between cities and city and country. Highways ran through many of Oklahoma's cities, and the more important cities had the highway routes published in the Official Map. I have scanned all 10 city plat maps from the 1930 and placed them here for you to view.
1930 Oklahoma Highways thru Oklahoma's principle cities
The background for this page is the original state highway shield, which was used from 1924 to the 1950's. The highway number depicted on them, OK4, was the original name of the north-south highway that bisected the state. It started near Chilicco at the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, north of Newkirk in Kay County, and ended at the Oklahoma-Texas state line south of Marietta. We know this road today as US 77.
A second highway of great importance in Oklahoma's highway history is the original OK3. OK3 ran east-west roughly along what is know I-40, starting at Ft. Smith, and ending at Texola. The original OK3 and OK4 intersected in Oklahoma City.
Thus, the original numbering scheme for the state was based largely off of these two routes, with east-west roads being odd in number, and north-south roads having even numbers.
One major diagonal route existed in 1925, and parts of it exist still today. This was the original OK7. The original OK7 started at Pitcher, in Ottawa county, and followed the route of what would be later known as US 66, through Tulsa to Oklahoma City, where it intersected OK3 and OK4. From Oklahoma City, OK7 continued to Lawton, in Comanche County, and eventually entered Texas west of Hollis, in Harmon County.
The pan handle of Oklahoma was served by only one highway in 1925, and that was OK11. Starting at its eastern terminus At the Arkansas border at Siloam Springs, OK11 headed west going through Chouteau, Catoosa, Tulsa, Skiatook, Barnsdall, Pawhuska, Burbank, Ponca City, Tonkawa, Altus, Buffalo, and Gate, where it entered the pan handle. It then ran north of Beaver to Hooker, Guymon, and terminated at Boise City, in the middle of Cimarron County.
Highway Links
How I made the background
The background for this page was made by scanning a graphic of the state highway shield off of the official 1930 state highway map. I then colorized the image in Microsoft paint, and then used a Microsoft photo editing program to fade it for use in a background.
Updated on April 14, 2004
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