All Points In Maine: The Maine Highways Route Log

"All points" and acknowledgements

What this list has

• All state route numbers since their initial designation, with present termini, distance and history (in brief). Photographs and links are also provided where appropriate/available.
• All Interstate highway numbers since their initial designation, with present termini, distance and history (in brief). Photographs and links are also provided where appropriate/available.
• All US highways/"Federal highway" numbers since their initial designation, with present termini, distance and history (in brief). Photographs and links are also provided where appropriate/available.

  What this list doesn't have

  • Inventory roads, except where listed for termini. There's just too many. See the FAQ.
  • New England Interstate route numbers are not listed directly (instead read Maine's New England Interstate Routes [1925]). However, NEI routes corresponding to a later numbered route are listed under the subsequent number for cross-reference, and NEI numbers that are used by a modern highway will be listed for disambiguation.
  • Pole highways are not listed directly (instead read Maine's Pole Highways and Auto Trails [1919-1925]). However, pole colours corresponding to a later numbered route are listed under the subsequent number for cross-reference.
  • Lettered highways are not listed directly (instead read Maine's Lettered Highways [1913]). However, lettered highway alignments corresponding to a later numbered route are listed under the subsequent number for cross-reference.
  • Site entries do not presently have Federal Functional Classification information. It is hoped that this can be added in the future.

Bibliography for this log

• Internal documentation
  • "First Annual Report, State Highway Commission, Maine" (1913)
  • "A History of Maine Roads 1600 - 1970" and 1995 addendum. Internal document, State of Maine Department of Transportation. (grateful acknowledgement to MDOT Communications)
  • Maine Highway News (published by the State Highway Commission): 6/1958, 7/1958, 8/1958, 9/1958, 10/1958, 11/1958, 12/1958; 1/1959, 2/1959, 3/1959, 9/1959, 10/1959, 11/1959; 6/1960, 9/1960; 9/1962; 1/1963, 10/1963; 4/1964, 5/1964, 6/1964
  • Transportation News (published by the Department of Transportation): 7/1973, 8/1973, 10/1973

• Official maps/internal maps
  • Maine State Highway Commission official maps: 1925, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937-8, 1939-40, 1940-1, 1942, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972
  • Maine Department of Transportation official maps: 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977-8, 1979-80
  • Maine Publicity Bureau official maps: 1991, 1997
  • DeLorme official maps (under contract): 1987, 1993, 1998
  • Maine Department of Transportation internal logs: 2002?, 2006
  • Maine State Highway Commission General Highway Atlas: 1961-1968
  • National Surveys state survey maps: 1923, 1934
  • University of New Hampshire Library, Government Information Department: Historic USGS Maps of New England & New York (various years)

• Additional maps and atlases
  • Rand McNally regional maps: 1923, 1924, 1933, 1981
  • Hammond regional atlas: 1924
  • Gehring National Atlas: 1925
  • Tydol-Trails: 1926
  • General Drafting Co. regional maps: 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933
  • Rand McNally National Atlases: 1926, 1929, 1938, 1941, 1946, 1955, 1959, 1966, 1976, 1983, 1984, 1990, 2005, 2006, 2007
  • H.M. Gousha regional maps: 1933, 1935
  • Works Progress Administration maps (from American Guide Series, "Maine," published by Houghton Mifflin): 1937

Legend, conventions and disclaimers

Certain entries are suffixed, and all suffixes receive separate entries, with legend as follows: A = alternate, B and C = business (except 9B), BYP = bypass (for US 1BYP only, not an official MDOT suffix), SH = state highway (for disambiguation in number, not an official MDOT suffix), E/W = alternate split highways (obsolete, 166E and 166W only), S/W = alternative south and westbound alignments for divided highways (except 166W), T = truck routing (not an official MDOT suffix), X = mainline (i.e., referring to the main unsuffixed route, for disambiguation in termini). Except for A, B and BYP, suffixes are usually internal designations only and typically unsigned, but may be bannered (C).

Descriptions of termini may be truncated or abbreviated due to limitations in record-keeping. Although signage in the field is useful, it is done often from a guidance or convenience perspective, and a signed terminus in some cases does not actually correspond to the administrative terminus. Also, dates of alignment changes may only be approximate or even utterly wrong; for many highways this has to be painstakingly gleaned from comparison of accumulative mileage logs, a method fraught with peril as older logs may be comparatively imprecise due to less optimal methods of measure. In particular, a modest but noticible shift in measuring technique occurred by the 1949 logs, making comparison with alignment lengths taken prior to that year much more difficult. Dates are based on the general principle that a change appearing on log dated year X likely occurred in year (X-1) to make it into that published edition, but this rule might break down for double-year issue dates. Map inferences or first-person reports may also be used to time-fix a particular change. Probable earlier alignments should similarly be considered with care, and their presence in this section does not necessarily mean that they are still driveable.

For approximately five years (on 1956-1960 route logs), the official map route logs didn't list highways shorter than 10 miles. This means very short highways or highways that were cut down during this period may have inversely wide realignment intervals since the precise year can't be fixed with any more detail, unless other map data is available.

Maine loves its multiplexes and making sure the cross-references match for an alignment with multiple routes signed over it is a thorn of huge proportions. Often finding the history of a particular alignment may require reading several entries which may not necessarily even be connected. Sorry about that; I'm trying to improve this.

Remember that routing and alignment do not mean the same thing. If you don't understand the difference, please see the Roadgap glossary.