ORoads: Oregon Route 201

Oregon Route 201 History

OR-201 was created at the inception of Oregon's secondary route numbering system in 1935, and it was a doozy, running almost 200 miles from Nyssa to the Nevada state line at McDermitt, a town which straddles the state line. The cities it passed through included Adrian, Jordan Valley, and Rome, turning at present-day Burns Junction (OR-78 didn't exist that far south back then) before heading south and connecting to Nevada State Route 8, which continued to US-40 at Winnemucca. In 1940, US-95 was extended southward, including through Oregon and Nevada, supplanting OR-201 from Jordan Valley to McDermitt. The remainder of OR-201, for some reason, was dropped as a state route from 1940 until 1948 at the latest, when it reappeared on maps between Nyssa and the Idaho border near Homedale, a shadow of its former self at 22.22 miles in length. However, that didn't mean that it would stop there, as evidenced by these route extensions and changes:

When US-26 was routed into Oregon in 1952 supplanting US-28, a portion of old US-28 from Cairo Jct. to Ontario became a northward extension of OR-201.
In 1956, when US-30 was moved onto a new freeway from near Farewell Bend State Park to Ontario in preparation of I-80N, OR-201 was extended north along US-30's old alignment from Ontario to the junction of US-30N near Annex.
US-30N was dropped in 1980, and OR-201 was extended over its westernmost portion to its current northern terminus (the remainder of US-30N became US-95 Spur).
Finally, in 2003, the Tony Yturri Memorial Beltline opened to the west of Ontario, and OR-201 was moved onto this new alignment, shortening the highway a smidge to 60.53 miles.

Even with all of these extensions over the years, OR-201's current length is only about a third of its original definition. However, there may be hope in the future for a southern OR-201 extension. OR-201's southern portion runs over the Succor Creek Highway #450. This highway continues as a located line (or an unbuilt proposed highway designation) 32 miles south, roughly along Succor Creek Rd. to its junction with US-95 north of Jordan Valley. (Don't believe me? Check out this straight-line chart from 2002.) The Succor Creek Rd. that exists now is a windy dirt road that really only serves local interests, so who knows when it may be built (I think an e-mail to ODOT is in order). Given that modern Succor Creek Rd. used to carry OR-201, there's a possibility that this highway, if built, would once again carry OR-201. The Homedale Spur of the Succor Creek Highway, which currently carries OR-201, may get a new route number, of which I would suggest OR-450, after the highway number of the Succor Creek Hwy, or OR-455, after that section's original highway designation as the Homedale Spur Highway #455 from 1933 to 1943. (Similarly, the Succor Creek Highway's other spur, the Parma Spur, was christened as OR-452 in 2003 as an homage to the spur's past existence as the Adrian-Parma Highway #452 from 1931 to 1971.)