US Highway endpoint in Springer, NM

Note: much of the information on this page is based on the research of Robert Droz; click here to view his site. Photo credits: me

The west end of US 56 has always been in Springer NM. The US 412 designation was extended to Springer in 1994; it's co-signed with US 56 west of Boise City OK for 135 miles, and the two routes share a common terminus. Every time I'm in New Mexico, I find the highway signage to be inaccurate, underinformative, haphazard, and/or just plain wrong. Let's start with this one from northbound I-25:

me, June 2006

Despite what that indicates, you don't have to exit to continue on I-25. That should be a green shield, because it's a reference to Business Loop I-25. However, to my knowledge, that's the only posted reference. Signage at the exit itself is shown below:

me, Feb. 2002 (unchanged as of June 2006)

So, all four of these routes are co-signed on the road to which I'm about to exit? Well, no. Actually, none of them are. Check out the map:

me

Springer has two interchanges: north and south. Both put you on what used to be US 85 through town (Maxwell Avenue), which now forms a business loop with the interstate. Pretty standard. Except US 85 is no longer signed in New Mexico. And the Springer business loop isn't signed as anything! All four routes above terminate at old US 85; none of them have direct access to I-25. If NMDoT were more conventional, the sign above would read "Business 25 to US 56/412, NM 21, and NM 468".

Anyway, when you get to the bottom of the ramp shown above, you're not even told which way Springer is, much less how to get to these four highways. Old US 85/unsigned Business 25 is to the right, and then it veers north through town. In about a half-mile, you come to the sign shown below:

me, June 2006

That's looking north on Maxwell. To the left on 4th Street is the east beginning of NM 21, which passes under I-25 but has no interchange. To the right is the west beginning of both US 56 and US 412. If you take that right, you'll see the first eastbound US 56/412 marker, shown below:

me, June 2006

That's heading east on 4th, and you can see the westernmost segment of US 56/412. The shot below is heading the opposite direction, and it shows the end of US 56/US 412:

me, Feb. 2002 (unchanged as of June 2006)

That's west on 4th at Maxwell. No "End" sign... however, there is a sign here for NM 58 - which is curious, since it doesn't begin until about 7 miles north of this point, off I-25. My guess is it's a remnant from a time before US 56 was commissioned, when the road between Springer and Clayton was NM 58. That designation then went north here with US 85 for 7 miles, and then split off again, heading west to Cimarron.

In the distance you can see NM 21's underpass at I-25. Note also that you can barely make out the first westbound NM 21 sign next to a big green sign. They're shown close-up below:

me, June 2006 (unchanged since at least Feb. 2002)

Isn't that green sign about a block too late? But I'll say it again: this is par for the course in New Mexico. I wouldn't advise travelling off the interstates there unless either you're willing to invest in a good atlas, or you enjoy getting lost.

Last but not least, we'll travel southbound. Here's the signage from I-25:

me, June 2006

Note that somebody decided to use a slash on that shield. Signage in NM is... well, "freeform", to put it nicely. There's no direction provided on the offramp, but assuming you guess correctly and cross the overpass, you'll eventually wind up on southbound Maxwell approaching 4th:

me, June 2006

Signage ahead tells you which way to go for NM 21, but there's no direction for US 56/412, which begins to the left.