Oklahoma State Highway 51

State Highway 51
Route information
Maintained by ODOT
Length:	332.8 mi (535.6 km)
Existed:	1 June 1927 – present
Major junctions
West end:	US-60 at Texas state line
East end:	AR 244 at the Arkansas state line
Highway system
Oklahoma State Highways Interstates U.S. Turnpikes ← SH-50 SH-52 →

State Highway 51, abbreviated to SH-51 or OK-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.

Route description

Texas to I-35

SH-51 begins at the Texas line concurrent with US-60 just east of Higgins, Texas. It remains concurrent for 61 miles (98 km) until it reaches US-270/US-281/SH-3 at Seiling, Oklahoma. At Seiling, SH-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 SH-58 in Canton. It then continues east, crossing the North Canadian River and meeting SH-51A before turning northeast toward Okeene, where it intersects SH-8. SH-51 will go for 24 miles (39 km) before intersecting another highway.

SH-51 meets many different highways in Seiling.

In Hennessey SH-51 meets U.S. Highway 81 before continuing eastward. 17 miles (27 km) later, it meets SH-74 north of Crescent. 11 miles (17 km) to the east, it shares a brief concurrency with US-77; two miles (3 km) later it has an interchange at Interstate 35, milemarker 174.

I-35 to Tulsa

After crossing I-35, SH-51 becomes a multilane highway and a major corridor linking I-35 to Stillwater, the home of Oklahoma State University. Along this 13-mile (21 km) stretch is an intersection with State Highway 86. When Highway 51 reaches Stillwater, it meets US-177.

Continuing east from Stillwater, the road returns to a two-lane highway after sharing a one-mile (1.6 km) concurrency with SH-108 and intersects with SH-18 eight miles (12.8 km) later. Four miles east of this, it passes through Yale, Oklahoma before crossing SH-99. It becomes a multilane highway again after a brief concurrency with SH-48. It passes through the small towns of Mannford and Lotsee on its way toward the Tulsa area.

Tulsa and beyond

In Sand Springs, SH-51 crosses the Arkansas River with SH-97 before merging onto the Sand Springs Expressway (U.S. Highway 412/U.S. Highway 64). When this freeway ends at I-244 near downtown Tulsa, Highway 51 merges onto I-244 southbound only to exit one mile (1.6 km) later, where it overlaps US-64/US-75. This freeway is actually Interstate 444, but the interstate designation is not shown on signs. After one more mile, SH-51 leaves the interstate with US-64 and becomes the Broken Arrow Expressway, a freeway running northwest-southeast through Tulsa which is known as "The BA" by locals and local media. US-64 leaves the freeway as a concurrency with US-169 southbound. Later, SH-51 will exit the freeway and become a four-lane highway toward Coweta. The mainline freeway becomes the Muskogee Turnpike.

At Coweta, SH-51 turns back east after heading southeast through the Tulsa area. After crossing the Muskogee Turnpike again and bridging the Verdigris River the highway soon enters Wagoner, where it junctions with US-69. Returning once again to a 2-lane road, Highway 51 crosses Ft. Gibson Lake and the town of Hulbert. 11 miles (18 km) later, it passes through Tahlequah, where it has a brief concurrency with US-62/SH-10. After spitting with these highways, it heads southeast toward Stilwell, Oklahoma, overlapping 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.

History

SH-51 was originally commissioned on June 1, 1927 as a connector from Stilwell to Eldon at SH-27 (present-day US-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 SH-51 west to Stillwater and Perry (via a segment of roadway currently serving as US-177).^[2][4] On March 18, 1935, the section from Stillwater to Perry was rescinded and SH-51 was extended to SH-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 US-60.^[2][6]

The Broken Arrow Expressway was built in the early 1960s^[7] and opened in 1964.^[2] It was not, however, officially named the Broken Arrow Expressway until July 6, 1999 ^[8] by H.B. 1455.

The steel truss bridge carrying SH-51 across Stillwater Creek west of Stillwater, once considered the gateway into the city, was removed on March 25, 2008. In a first for the state of Oklahoma, the bridge, originally built in 1936, was sold to Payne County for $200,000 and transferred to a county road east of Stillwater, where it was installed over Council Creek.^[9]

Spurs

Like many in the Oklahoma state highway system, SH-51 has short spurs branching from it that bear the "51" number with a lettered suffix:

• SH-51A (23 mi/37 km) runs from SH-58 northeast of Canton to SH-8 near Roman Nose State Park. It is the longest suffixed highway in the system .
• SH-51B (18½ mi/30 km) connects Coweta to US-69 north of Muskogee. It goes through the towns of Porter and Tullahassee.
• SH-51C (decommissioned) (1.7 mi/2.7 km) connected SH-51 west of Stillwater to Carl Blackwell Lake until it was decommissioned in 2005.
• SH-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.^[10]
• In 2004, ODOT completed SH-51 Spur, running for 3 miles (4.8 km) through Tahlequah to end at State Highway 82. It is currently the newest Oklahoma state highway.

Junction list

County	Location	mi[1]	km	Destinations	Notes
Ellis		0.0	0.0	US-60	Texas state line; western terminus
		6.7	10.8	US-283
	Arnett	12.7	20.4	SH-46	Southern terminus of SH-46
		13.7	22.0	US-283
Dewey	Vici	39.6	63.7	SH-34
		40.5	65.2	SH-34
		58.8	94.6	US-183
	Seiling	60.6	97.5	US-60 / US-270 / US-281 / SH-3
	Hucmac	69.0	111.0	US-270 / US-281 / SH-3
Blaine	Canton	81.2	130.7	SH-58A	Southern terminus of SH-58A
		82.0	132.0	SH-58
		83.0	133.6	SH-58
	Southard	88.1	141.8	SH-51A
	Okeene	98.9	159.2	SH-8
Kingfisher	Lacey	115.1	185.2	SH-132
	Hennessey	122.6	197.3	US-81
Logan		138.1	222.3	SH-74E	Southern terminus of SH-74E
		140.1	225.5	SH-74
		151.0	243.0	US-77
		151.3	243.5	US-77
Payne		153.8	247.5	I‑35
		157.3	253.1	SH-86
		162.0	260.7	Road to Lake Carl Blackwell	Former southern terminus of SH-51C
	Stillwater	170.4	274.2	US-177
		177.8	286.1	SH-108
		178.8	287.8	SH-108
		186.8	300.6	SH-18
Creek		197.6	318.0	SH-99
		208.2	335.1	SH-48
		215.1	346.2	SH-151	Southern terminus of SH-151
Tulsa	Sand Springs	224.3	361.0	SH-97
		225.5	362.9	SH-97
		225.5	362.9	US-64 / US-412	SH-51 joins the Sand Springs Expressway (freeway)
	Tulsa	232.1	373.5	I‑244 / US-412
		232.9	374.8	I‑444 / US-75	SH-51 splits off I-244 and joins I-444, US-64/75 follow
		234.3	377.1	I‑444 / US-75	SH-51 splits off I-444/US-75 onto Broken Arrow Expressway, US-64 follows
		239.6	385.6	I‑44 / SH-66
		242.0	389.5	US-64 / US-169
	Broken Arrow	248.8	400.4	Muskogee Turnpike
Wagoner	Coweta	258.0	415.2	SH-72	Northern terminus of SH-72
		261.5	420.8	Muskogee Turnpike
	Wagoner	272.6	438.7	US-69
		275.1	442.7	SH-16	Eastern terminus of SH-16
Cherokee	Hulbert	288.4	464.1	SH-80
	Tahlequah	300.7	483.9	US-62 / SH-10 / SH-82
		303.0	487.6	SH-82
		305.0	490.8	SH-10
	Eldon	310.7	500.0	US-62
Adair	Stilwell	324.8	522.7	US-59
		325.7	524.2	US-59
		332.8	535.6	AR 244	Arkansas state line; eastern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus

References

External links

• SH-51 at Roadklahoma