End of US highway 400

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: Steve Riner; Mike Wiley; me

US 400 was commissioned in 1994. Its east end is outside Joplin MO, at its interchange with I-44. You can view photos from there on this page.

Originally the west end of US 400 was in Garden City KS. This first photo is looking south on the US 50/US 83 bypass, at the interchange where US 50/US 400 traffic exits onto Fulton Street:

me, Nov. 2001

This bypass had already been built by the time US 400 was commissioned, so it's likely that the sign above would've marked the exit to the west beginning of US 400. The shot below is looking west on Fulton (US 50/US 400):

me, Nov. 2001

Today the bypass carries US 83, and US 50/400 traffic is routed onto it too. But when it was first commissioned, the US 400 designation ended at this interchange.

If you ask me, US 400 shouldn't have ever made it even as far west as Garden City - there's no good reason why it shouldn't end at its junction with US 50 in Dodge City. Clearly KDoT feels differently: for whatever reason, they must've wanted US 400 to run across the entire state, because within two years US 400 had been signed even further west with US 50, through the remainder of Kansas. Since then, the west end of US 400 is about 15 miles west of the Kansas border, in Granada CO. In other words, the westernmost 135 miles of US 400 are on a pointless duplex with US 50. I'm guessing CDoT accepted US 400 only because AASHTO probably stipulated that it couldn't end at a stateline, so CDoT decided to be a good neighbor to Kansas by agreeing to the US 400 designation. But they clearly have no use for it, as evidenced by the fact that it ends at the first opportunity: at its junction with US 385. Until recently, CDoT signage in Granada didn't even bother mentioning US 400, and there were a grand total of two US 400 signs anywhere in Colorado. Below is a photo of the last westbound US 400 sign:

Wiley, 2000

That sign is between Holly and Granada - as I recall, it was posted just past Prowers Co. Rd. 30, which goes north to serve the town of Hartman. Not far ahead, you reach the town of Granada - the photo below is looking west on Goff Avenue (US 50). US 400 has been co-signed with US 50 to this point, but here at Main Street (US 385) that designation ends:

me, Nov. 2001

The shot below is looking the opposite direction (east on US 50/US 385). From here, US 385 heads north on Main, while US 50 continues ahead on Goff. The US 400 designation also begins ahead:

me, Nov. 2001

Within the next few years, that assembly had been replaced, and two additional shields appeared:

Riner, Aug. 2005

That's the only mention of US 400 in Granada; Steve reports the other sign assemblies had also been replaced, but none of them included any reference to US 400. (It's odd that there's a CO hwy. 196 marker on that eastbound assembly. To get there, you cross the Arkansas River via US 385, and then 196 begins by heading back to the west - likely not a very common traffic pattern. Our guess is that the intention was to have that marker included on the westbound assembly, but that a mistake was made somewhere along the line.) Below is yet another photo of the same intersection, this time looking south on Main, or US 385:

me, Nov. 2001

In that photo, if you turn left, you're on US 400 as well as US 50. Heading that direction, the first reassurance marker looks like this:

me, Nov. 2001

That's about a half-mile east of Granada (you can click here if you'd like to see another [non-highway] photo from there). US 400 irks me, because it's a stupid number. The number "400" implies that it's a branch of US highway Zero - or possibly US 100 - neither of which exist. And the really annoying thing is, this wasn't just some lame idea that Kansas came up with. No, AASHTO actually offered this number to KDoT. In other words: the organization that's supposed to be the guardian of the integrity of the US highway system gave its blessing to this completely non-sensical number.