Oklahoma State Highway 7
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| State Highway 7 |
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| Maintained by ODOT | |||||||||
| Length: | 150.3 mi (242 km) | ||||||||
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| West end: |  Interstate 44 in Lawton |
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| East end: |   U.S. 69/75 in Atoka |
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State Highway 7, often abbreviated as OK-7 or SH-7, is a 150-mile[1] (242 km) highway in southern Oklahoma. This lengthy highway connects many towns in Oklahoma's "Little Dixie" area. It runs from Interstate 44 in Lawton to U.S. 69/U.S. 75 in Atoka.
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[edit] Route description
From its western terminus at the interchange with Interstate 44 and Lee Boulevard in Lawton, OK-7 is a multilane highway. It runs due east from Lawton for ten miles before intersecting State Highway 65 in the unincorporated community of Pumpkin Center. It continues due east for 14 more miles, bypassing the town of Central High, before meeting U.S. 81 north of Duncan.
For many years, this 24-mile section of OK-7 from Lawton to U.S. 81 was one of the longest straight sections of highway in Oklahoma without a single curve.[citation needed] That changed somewhat in the 1990s when slight reverse curve was added when the highway was upgraded to a four-lane divided highway in the vicinity of the Big Beaver Creek bridge near Pumpkin Center in Comanche County in order to preserve a historic farmhouse dating back to early Oklahoma history that would otherwise have been in the path of the highway expansion project.
OK-7 and U.S. 81 are duplexed for 6 miles through Duncan, after which the state highway splits off to the east once again, still as a multilane highway, though it falls to a two-lane road after a few miles. Next the highway passes through the town of Velma before meeting State Highway 76 in Ratliff City. The southern section of OK-74, which roughly mirrors SH-76's path, has its southern terminus at OK-7 seven miles later, near Tatums.
After crossing Interstate 35, OK-7 becomes a multilane highway once again. Three miles later, it meets U.S. 77 near Davis. On the other side of Davis, OK-7 is the northern terminus of OK-110, a connector route to the town of Dougherty. Two miles west of Sulphur, the highway connects to the southern terminus of the Chickasaw Turnpike, a toll highway to Ada. After passing through Sulphur (where it has a brief duplex with U.S. 177), OK-7 travels six more miles, where it meets Highway 1.
For ten miles, OK-7 and OK-1 are duplexed, through the town of Mill Creek. This duplex ends three miles south of Mill Creek, where it serves the unincorporated community of Reagan and the Slippery Falls Boy Scout Ranch. It shares a one-mile triplex with U.S. 377/OK-99. Thirteen miles east of the triplex, it serves the town of Wapanucka, Oklahoma, where it intersects OK-48. Seventeen miles later, it ends at U.S. 75 in Atoka.
[edit] History
OK-7 is a former border to border east-west state highway across southern Oklahoma whose western terminus was at the Texas border west of Hollis and eastern terminus at the Arkansas border east of Broken Bow.[1] OK-7's route was truncated on its eastern and western sections during the 1960s and 1970s as those were duplexed with U.S. 62 between the Texas border and Lawton and with U.S. 70 between Broken Bow and the Arkansas border.[2] The eastern portion of OK-7 that was duplexed with U.S. 70 between Broken Bow and the Arkansas border was truncated in 1963 to its junction with U.S. 70 in Broken Bow. The western section of OK-7 duplexed with U.S. 62 was truncated in 1971 to the intersection of Cache Road (U.S. 62) and Sheridan Road in Lawton following the upgrading of U.S. 62 between Lawton and Altus into a multilane expressway which included extensive realignments and bypassing of cities and towns along the old duplexed U.S. 62/OK-7 alignment including Cache, Indiahoma, Snyder, and Headrick. Almost all of the original OK-7/U.S. 62 alignment from Lawton to Headrick (including the U.S. 62 Business route in Snyder) still exists today as a local/county road with original 1930s concrete surfacing still intact from west of Cache through Indiahoma to east of Snyder and from the North Fork of Red River bridge through Headrick to its intersection with the current four-lane U.S. 62 west of Headrick. This section of old OK-7/U.S. 62 includes several 1920s/1930s vintage bridges with Oklahoma's then-common concrete fence post railing and truss bridges of both the pony- and through-truss variety. One of those old bridges includes the 3/4-mile pony-truss structure over the North Fork of the Red River between Snyder and Headrick that was built in 1928 and is situated on the boundaries of three counties: Kiowa, Jackson and Tillman counties (The current four-lane U.S. 62 bridge to the north and its alignment is entirely in Kiowa and Jackson counties).
Along still-intact sections of OK-7, major route changes through the years include a relocation in Duncan during the early 1950s, when the original route along Main Street through the downtown area was moved south of the business district along Bois D'Arc Avenue from U.S. 81 eastward to tie in with the original Main Street route on Duncan's east side, which became OK-7 Alternate and now designated as OK-7 Business. In 1969, the main Bois D'Arc Avenue alignment in Duncan was relocated slightly to the south and the rerouting continued for some 20 miles from the OK-7/OK-7 Business junction to Velma on a new and straighter alignment (including both multi-lane divided highway and two-lane roadway) that bypassed the old OK-7 alignment through the oil fields of eastern Stephens County along with the town of Velma. In the 1980s, the new OK-7 was extended east of Velma past the small community of County Line on the Stephens/Carter county line to west of Ratliff City in Carter County.
By 1985, the eastern terminus of OK-7 was pushed back to its intersection with OK-3 and U.S. 69/75 in Atoka when OK-7 was again truncated and lost its duplex with OK-3 from Atoka to Broken Bow. In 2003, OK-7s route through most of the Lawton city limits on Lee Boulevard and Sheridan Road was eliminated when the western terminus was pushed back to the I-44 interchange with Lee Boulevard on the east side of Lawton. Eliminated at the same time was a related OK-7 Alternate route in Lawton that followed Sheridan Road from the 1971-2003 western terminus of OK-7 at the Cache/Sheridan intersection north to the Sheridan Gate of the Fort Sill Military Reservation.
[edit] Spurs
SH-7 has two spur routes:
- OK-7B, also signed as Business OK-7, is the original alignment of OK-7 through Duncan.
- OK-7D is a 3.5 mile spur to the town of Bromide.
