Current and historic endpoints of US highway 199 in Grants Pass, OR
Note: since I don't have access to a comprehensive collection
of historical road atlases, much of the info on this page is based on the
research of Robert Droz; click
here to view his site. Photo credits: Chris
Elbert; Alex
Nitzman; Mike Wiley.
Grants Pass basemap customized from the original by Dennis
McClendon.
The north end of US 199 has been at Grants Pass OR since the US routes were
originally commissioned in 1926. However, the north endpoint shifted a bit when
I-5 was built; the map below shows the first endpoint of US 199:
Originally US 199 ended at the intersection at lower left, known as "Redwood
Junction", shown below:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
That's looking north on US 199, at its historic north end (southbound US 99
was right, and northbound was to the left). Straight ahead crosses the river
and becomes Grants Pass Parkway, but that wasn't an option originally (see below).
After I-5 came through here in about 1965, the US 199 designation was extended
north with hwy. 99, and then east to its terminus at interchange 55:
(At some point, US 99 was decommissioned and replaced with OR 99; and also
7th Street became a one-way partner with 6th Street to carry hwy. 99 traffic.)
The photo below is from southbound I-5 at the north beginning of US 199:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
Instead of "Ocean Beaches", the control point on that sign used to be "Oregon
Caves":
Wiley, 2001
Anyway, if you exit there, you see the signage below at the bottom of the ramp:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
The assembly pointing right should say "US 199; To OR 99". If you take that
right, you see the first southbound US 199 marker:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
But if you were to go left at the bottom of the off-ramp, you'd be at the north
end of US 199, and your only options would be to go north or south on I-5:
Nitzman, Mar. 2005
Below is a close-up of the signage:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
Today there's a relatively recent re-routing of US 199 (extended east from
Redwood Junction, via a third bridge over the river) called Grants Pass Parkway,
shown on the map below:
Today's US 199 joins "old" US 199 (E Street) about a half-mile west of I-5,
so its north terminus did not change after the Parkway was built.
The south end of US 199 has always been in Crescent City CA - you can view
photos from there on my main
US 199 page.
Page (in its original form) created 28 August 2001; last updated 25
October 2006.
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