Current and historic US Highway endpoints
in Tulsa OK and vicinity

Research credits: David Backlin, Jeremy Lance. Photo credits: Robert Brooks, Ben Prusia, Eric Stuve

Click here if you'd like to view an interactive map showing current and historic endpoints in the Tulsa area.

Although some of what I present here is guesswork and conjecture, most of it is based on historic OK DoT maps and/or OK DoT route logs.

US 169 was not shown on the 1935 map from OK DoT. It first shows up on 1936 map, but it appears to end at US 75 in Collinsville:

OK DoT, c. 1936

The Tulsa inset on the 1936 edition does not show US 169 either. However, OK DoT's legal description of US 169 states that it was commissioned in June 1935 to run from Tulsa to the Kansas line. So, despite that map, US 169 never ended in Collinsville. Maybe the reason it wasn't shown going to Tulsa on that map is because its new routing through Mohawk Park was under construction. That segment opened in May 1937, and it's shown on that year's map:

OK DoT, c. 1937

US 169 is also marked on the Tulsa inset map, coming into town on Mohawk Boulevard and then Peoria Avenue. The cartography on the 1937 inset map was poor; they did a better job in 1939:

OK DoT, c. 1939

As you can see, US 169 intersected US 75 at the 2nd/3rd Street couplet - however, it didn't end there. According to route logs, US 169 continued south on Peoria to 15th Street, where it ended at US 64. The photo below is looking west on 15th:

Google Maps Street View, 2008

The black car is heading north on Peoria, and he is at the original Tulsa beginning of US 169. The next year (1940), OK DoT maps apparently stopped including city insets, but the main maps through 1943 indicate that US 169 continued to end in Tulsa. But in May of that year, US 169 was extended west on 15th Street; then south on Boston Avenue; then across the Arkansas River on the 21st Street Bridge (which becomes 23rd in West Tulsa) - you can see that routing on the map above. From there, US 169 was signed southward along the then-new "Okmulgee Beeline" (I believe this is now known as the "Okmulgee Expressway" - it's the route that US 75 follows today). The 1944 map was the first to show this. I've only seen that map in black-and-white, but the full-color map from the next year is very instructive in determining exactly where US 169 ended:

OK DoT, c. 1945

According to the legend for that map, US routes are shown in red, and state routes are blue. So US 169 is shown ending at OK hwy. 67 in Glenpool, rather than being signed westward to a terminus at US 75 in Kiefer (the "hollow" red line indicates that the road wasn't yet paved). That's confirmed in the legal description, which specifies US 169 was extended to "Jct. SH 67 near Glenpool". Here's a photo showing what that junction probably looked like at the time:

Mar. 1961, The Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa

I'm thinking that was looking northbound on the Okmulgee, and that straight ahead was the south beginning of US 169. Below is a modern photo showing the same perspective:

Google Maps Street View, 2008

You can see that the Okmulgee is now a 4-lane expressway, and the junction with OK 67 is grade-separated. The shot below was taken heading the opposite direction (southbound on the Okmulgee, or US 75):

Stuve, Jan. 2003

That's where US 169 ended. In 1957, OK DoT asked AASHTO for permission to extend the US 169 designation southward through Henryetta and Ada to Madill. I assume this was partly in anticipation of having the Okmulgee completed down to Preston, and partly because OK DoT seems to have been very determined to have a US route serving Ada and Madill (they had actually been trying to accomplish that since 1952, when they began proposing to extend US 177 and/or US 377). The US 169 proposal wasn't approved in 1957, nor in the following year when they made the same request. Maps through 1958 show the Okmulgee ending at Glenpool. But maps from the following year baffle me:

Gousha, c. 1959

When the final segment of the Okmulgee Expressway was completed (between Glenpool and Preston), it was still signed as US 169 only down to Glenpool - the segment south of there was given a state route number (the DoT map from that year shows the same thing). Why? I have no idea. Some might argue that it was because US 169 actually went west to Kiefer, but that's been disproven. But neither does it make make much sense that the US 169 designation would've been extended south of Tulsa for the sole purpose of serving a town the size of Glenpool. Rather, I think it was because they needed a number for the new expressway. So why didn't they extend that number south in 1959? Well, actually, according to OK DoT route logs, they did. But not just to jct. US 75 at Preston. And not even to jct. US 62 at Okmulgee. No, the route log says US 169 was extended all the way to Henryetta. Now tell me how that makes any sense! Looking at the map above, it's obvious that US 75 traffic should be rerouted along the new expressway (which OK DoT did the next year). So why co-sign US 169 with US 75 for over 20 miles, only to have it end at Henryetta? And what's even more strange: I've never seen any map showing a US 169 marker south of Glenpool. Not even OK DoT's maps. Maybe that's because the extension was something that OKDoT decided to do internally, but before bothering to sign it along a pointless multiplex with US 75, they were waiting to see whether AASHTO was going to approve the full extension to Madill.

Beats me. At any rate, that was a temporary situation, because by 1960 OK DoT had redirected US 75 traffic to use the Okmulgee, and shortly after that they decided to use the US 169 designation for a different highway that was being built...

In 1966, US 169 was truncated back to Tulsa. By that time, the Mingo Valley Expressway was under construction (it was built from the north, southward). US 169 was signed down the Mingo, and the designation ended wherever the Mingo ended, which at the time was I-44. The 1982 map shows the Mingo completed to the Broken Arrow Expwy, and implies that 169 ended there. 1988 map shows Mingo completed to 71st, and 169 is labeled at least as far south as 61st. 1992 shows the Creek Turnpike complete between Okmulgee and Memorial Drive (US 64), but the Mingo still went only as far as 71st. 1993 is the first map that showed the Creek Tpk connecting with the Mingo - that's probably when the US 169 designation was extended to its current terminus at Memorial.

Since the Mingo bypasses downtown Tulsa to the east, US 169 no longer serves the central part of the city. (I'm told the name "Mingo Valley Expressway" is disappearing from local usage: the road is now signed as "Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway", but most Tulsans refer to it simply as "169"). In the southeast part of town, the freeway (now completed) curves west and becomes the Creek Turnpike. That's a toll road west of the Memorial Drive interchange (where eastbound US 64 exits), so perhaps that's why officials decided to terminate the US 169 designation at that point:

Prusia

That shot was taken heading west on the Creek Turnpike, or east on US 64 (which exits here), and south on US 169 (which ends here). Ahead the turnpike becomes a tollway; that's why the yellow sign says "Last Free Exit". Just prior to that exit, and "End" assembly is posted:

Google Maps Street View, 2008

The photos below were taken from the opposite direction (east on the Creek Turnpike); this first one is approaching the Memorial exit:

Stuve, Sep. 2003

Eastbound US 64 is directed south on Memorial. Straight ahead is westbound 64, but that's not really acknowledged in this part of town. Also straight ahead is the south beginning of US 169. In the photo below, you can see westbound US 64 traffic merging onto the highway from Memorial...

Stuve, Sep. 2003

...but the first mention of US 169 doesn't appear until the next exit:

Stuve, Sep. 2003

Note that US 64 is still not acknowledged - it's the same on the green signs in the distance, shown close-up below:

Stuve, Sep. 2003

US 169 is signed from both directions on Memorial - this last shot is looking northbound (which also carries westbound US 64):

Google Maps Street View, 2008

Anyway, that's what I know of the elusive southern terminus of US 169. And - as if you haven't read enough already - its north end is equally mysterious. You can view photos and get more info on my main US 169 page, or you can view an interactive map showing these endpoints.