Forgotten Hwy's video: US 70 Historic US 180 West - The Old West Highway - Safford to Globe AZ

Driving US 70 is almost like a full-circle moment for me. It was not supposed to happen this day, nor was it a welcome detour at the time, but I'm glad I captured it. My first video was of the San Bernardino Freeway back in California, which at one point carried US 70. Originally from California, US 70 always seemed like a distant memory. Now for the history of this road. US 70 in the west leads a very interesting life, spending a lot of time intertwined, co-routing, or being replaced by US 60. US 70 is one of the original 1926 routes, with its original western terminus at US 66 in Holbrook, AZ. This was changed when US 60's western terminus was moved from Amarillo, TX to Los Angeles, CA in 1932. The new US 60 met US 70 at Texico, NM (near Clovis). From there, US 60 took US 70's old alignment from Texico to Springerville, AZ while the remaining segment from Springerville to Holbrook became US 260. US 60 then took over former local and state routes, and used a temporary alignment to meet then-US 180 at Rice, AZ (Rice became the town of San Carlos). From there, US 60 co-routed with US 180 to Florence Junction, where US 180 ended and US 60 co-routed with US 80 and 89 through the Phoenix area, eventually splitting west of Phoenix in Wickenburg, AZ to continue on it's journey westward. US 70 was then realigned, replacing US 366 between Clovis and El Paso. This only lasted for 2 years, however, when the decision was made to replace US 180 with US 70. In 1934, US 70 continued on it's route from Clovis to Alamogordo, NM where, instead of heading directly south to El Paso, it would now head southwest to Las Cruses. There, it would co-route with US 80 to Lordsburg, NM where it would replace then-US 180 from Lordsburg to Globe, AZ, where US 60 and 70 would co-route to Florence Jct to replace US 180, and ultimately remain co-routed to Banning, CA where US 70 would co-route with US 99 and later rejoin US 60 to head into Los Angeles. (Past Globe, US 70 never had it's own route.) US 70 did not completely replace US 180 though, and the portions left between Caballo and Lordsburg via Silver City, NM were deleted and returned to New Mexico's control. Ultimately, US 54 was extended south from it's terminus at US 60 (former US 70) in Vaughn, NM along NM Route 3 to take over the section of US 70 from Alamogordo to El Paso in 1935. US 54 and 70 are now briefly co-routed through Alamogordo. US 260 was extended southeast past Springerville, AZ to Deming, NM via Silver City, replacing a small section of US 180 that was 'orphaned' between Silver City and Santa Clara (formally Central). In 1961-62, in an ironic twist of fate, US 260 was deleted and its route transferred to modern US 180 after it was extended west from El Paso. This effectively transferred US 180's original route between Silver City and Santa Clara, as well as US 70's original route from Springerville to Holbrook, to modern US 180. It's unclear who got the better end of the stick here, as while US 70 ran all the way to Los Angeles, all it did was co-route with other highways past Globe. As such it was ripe for truncation, ultimately being removed from California in 1964. Because of that, Arizona started removing it as well, with the route being truncated back to it's current end in Globe at US 60 in 1969. In 1961, though, US 180 was extended further north to connect to the Grand Canyon, even being co-routed from Holbrook to Flagstaff with I-40. Thanks for watching! Follow and Support Me: Website: forgottenhwy.com Twitter: http://bit.ly/hwytweet Instagram: http://bit.ly/hwyinsta Facebook: http://bit.ly/hwyfacebook Patreon: http://bit.ly/hwypatreon