Oklahoma State Highway 51
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| State Highway 51 |
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| Maintained by ODOT | |||||||||
| Length: | 332.8 mi (536 km) | ||||||||
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| Formed: | 1 June 1927 | ||||||||
| West end: |  U.S. 60, Texas state line |
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| East end: |  AR-244, Arkansas state line |
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State Highway 51, abbreviated to OK-51 or, for official use, SH-51, is a major state highway in Oklahoma. It runs for 333 miles[1] (535½ km) east-west across the state, running from the Texas state line to Arkansas. It is the third-longest state highway in the system.
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[edit] Route description
[edit] Texas to I-35
OK-51 begins at the Texas line concurrent with U.S. 60 just east of Higgins, Texas. It remains duplexed for 61 miles (98 km) until it reaches U.S. 270/U.S. 281/OK-3 at Seiling, Oklahoma. At Seiling, OK-51 joins with those three highways for nine miles (14 km) before splitting off on its own.
11 miles (18 km) after splitting off, Highway 51 meets OK-58 in Canton. It then continues east, crossing the North Canadian River and meeting OK-51A before turning northeast toward Okeene, where it intersects OK-8. OK-51 will go for 24 miles (39 km) before intersecting another highway.
In Hennessey OK-51 meets U.S. Route 81 before continuing eastward. 17 miles (27 km) later, it meets OK-74 north of Crescent. 11 miles (17 km) to the east, it shares a brief duplex with U.S. 77; two miles later it has an interchange at Interstate 35, milemarker 174.
[edit] I-35 to Tulsa
After crossing I-35, OK-51 becomes a multilane highway and a major corridor linking I-35 to Stillwater, the home of Oklahoma State University. Along this 13-mile stretch is an intersection with State Highway 86. When Highway 51 reaches Stillwater, it meets U.S. 177.
Continuing east from Stillwater, the road returns to a two-lane highway after sharing a one-mile duplex with OK-108 and intersects with OK-18 eight miles (12.8 km) later. Four miles east of this, it passes through Yale, Oklahoma before crossing OK-99. It becomes a multilane highway again after a brief duplex with OK-48. It passes through the small towns of Mannford and Lotsee on its way toward the Tulsa area.
[edit] Tulsa and beyond
In Sand Springs, OK-51 crosses the Arkansas River with OK-97 before merging onto the Keystone Expressway (U.S. Route 412/U.S. Route 64). When this freeway ends at I-244 near downtown Tulsa, Highway 51 merges onto I-244 southbound only to exit one mile later, where it duplexes with U.S. 64/U.S. 75. This freeway is actually Interstate 444, but the interstate designation is not shown on signs. After one more mile, OK-51 leaves the interstate with U.S. 64 and becomes the Broken Arrow Expressway, a freeway running northwest-southeast through Tulsa. U.S. 64 leaves the freeway as a duplex with US-169 southbound. Later, OK-51 will exit the freeway and become a four lane highway toward Coweta. The mainline freeway becomes the Muskogee Turnpike.
At Coweta, OK-51 becomes two lane again and turns back east after heading southeast through the Tulsa area. After crossing the Muskogee Turnpike again and bridging the Verdigris River, the road regains its four-lane status leading up to Wagoner, where it junctions with U.S. 69. Returning once again to a 2-lane road, Highway 51 crosses Ft. Gibson Lake and the town of Hulbert. 11 miles later, it passes through Tahlequah, where it has a brief duplex with U.S. 62/OK-10. After spitting with these highways, it heads southeast toward Stilwell, Oklahoma, duplexing with Route 59 for a mile on the way. After leaving Stilwell it provides access to Adair State Park, and then crosses the Arkansas line becoming Highway 244, which quickly connects to Highway 59.
[edit] History
OK-51 was originally commissioned on June 1, 1927 as a connector from Stilwell to Eldon at OK-27 (present-day U.S. 62).[2] By 1928, it had been extended to Tulsa.[3] On June 15, 1933, it was extended to the east to the Arkansas state line, where it became AR-45.[2]
ODOT extended OK-51 west to Stillwater and Perry (via a segment of roadway currently serving as U.S. 177).[2][4] On March 18, 1935, the section from Stillwater to Perry was rescinded and OK-51 was extended to OK-8 at Okeene.[2][5] It was then extended to Seiling on October 18, 1938. On March 23, 1943, it was extended to the Texas state line by a concurrency with U.S. 60.[2]
[edit] Spurs
Like many in the Oklahoma state highway system, OK-51 has short spurs branching from it that bear the "51" number with a lettered suffix:
- OK-51A (23 mi/37 km) runs from OK-58 northeast of Canton to OK-8 near Roman Nose State Park. It is the longest suffixed highway in the system [1].
- OK-51B (18½ mi/30 km) connects Coweta to U.S. 69 north of Muskogee. It goes through the towns of Porter and Tullahassee.
- OK-51C (decommissioned) (1.7 mi/2.7 km) connected OK-51 west of Stillwater to Carl Blackwell Lake until it was decommissioned in 2005.
- OK-51D (decommissioned) connected SH-51 south of Sand Springs with I-244 in Tulsa, running along Avery Drive and W. 21st Street. It appeared on some ODOT maps as late as the 1970s, but is no longer shown.[6]
- In 2004, ODOT completed OK-51 Spur, running for 3 miles through Tahlequah to end at State Highway 82. It is currently the newest Oklahoma state highway. [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Stuve, Eric. OK-51. OKHighways. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
- ^ a b c d e Oklahoma Department of Transportation. Memorial Dedication & Revision History - SH 51. ODOT Planning & Research Division. URL accessed 19 February 2007.
- ^ Oklahoma Department of Transportation. 1928 Highway Map.
- ^ Oklahoma Department of Transportation. 1935 Highway Map.
- ^ Oklahoma Department of Transportation 1937 Highway Map
- ^ Oklahoma Department of Transportation map, Average Daily Traffic Volume, Tulsa inset, 1977.
