History
In 1927, the Texas Legislature authorized the Texas Highway Department, a precursor agency to TxDOT, to construct Davis Mountains State Park Highway after what was then the State Parks Board had failed to acquire parkland for a state park within the Davis Mountains. The road was to include portions of the present SH 118 and State Highway 166 now known as the Davis Mountains Scenic Loop. In 1928, SH 118 was designated from Marfa to Presidio By 1933, the parks board finally acquired land for a park ending the need for a park highway. The road, which had then been built from Fort Davis to Fowlkes Ranch, was designated as SH 166. SH 118 was replaced by SH 17 and SH 118 was instead assigned on the old route of SH 17 from Alpine to Fort Davis which was completed.
In 1939 when the state highway commission approved the General Redesignation of the State Highway System and created the state's Highway Designation Files, SH 118 had been extended from Terlingua to Kent. With this new designation, the route was largely the same as the present with the exception of taking a more westerly path at a point near Adobe Walls Mountain in southern Brewster County in order to terminate at Terlingua rather than Study Butte; although, except for the stretch between Alpine and Fowlkes Ranch, the road was unpaved and even classified as primitive in places. The stretch of the road through Fort Davis to the present intersection with SH 166 at Nunn Hill was concurrent with SH 166. That same year, a spur route of former State Highway 227 was designated as an extension of SH 118 causing the road to terminate at SH 227. This extension followed the easternmost path of present day FM 170 to its terminus, and then down the southernmost stretch of the present SH 118 and the westernmost portion of the current park road ending at the intersection of what is now the Old Maverick Road within the present Big Bend National Park.
In 1941, the state canceled the designation of SH 118 from Alpine to SH 227 with the Terlingua Spur between Terlingua and SH 227 receiving the designation of State Spur 121 and the portion between Terlingua and Alpine reverting to county jurisdiction. The same year, SH 166 was given its present termini with its concurrent designation over SH 118 from Fort Davis to Nunn Hill dropped. The cancellation of the route south of Alpine was short lived. Beginning in 1946, SH 118 was extended incrementally in 10-20-mile (16–32 km) segments until the present route through Study Butte to the national park boundary was fully designated in 1951.
Read more about this topic: Texas State Highway 118
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