Oklahoma State Highway 50 - History

History

State Highway 50 was first commissioned on March 2, 1927, running from State Highway 47 in Mooreland (later SH-15, present-day US-412) to US-64 and the original State Highway 1 north of Freedom. Between January 1, 1929, and March 1, 1930, the highway was extended west along US-64, then north along a segment of old SH-1, passing through Lookout and ending at the Kansas state line. On November 1, 1954, State Highway 34 was extended to follow SH-50 in concurrency north of US-64.

SH-50 underwent a major realignment on October 6, 1958, bypassing a gravel section with a straighter paved route. At the same time, SH-50A was established to connect the new road to Alabaster Caverns. Around this time, SH-34C, formerly a continuous highway linking SH-34 to Boiling Springs State Park and onward to SH-50, was split into two highways, with the middle section through the park being decommissioned. The section of highway east of the park was renumbered to SH-50B.

Also occurring on October 6, 1958, was the southern extension of SH-50, starting at US-183/270/SH-3, continuing north to SH-15, and continuing east along SH-15 to Mooreland, where it linked up with existing SH-50. The extension would not be shown on state highway maps until the 1960 edition, however.

The highway was at its greatest extent from 1958 to 1964, when it started at its present-day southern terminus and continued all the way north to the Kansas state line. However, virtually all of the highway north of Freedom was concurrent with another route. On November 9, 1964, SH-50 was truncated to end at its present-day northern terminus at US-64.

In the early 1980s, a new bridge was built across the Cimarron River south of Freedom. SH-50 was realigned to use this new crossing on April 6, 1981. No changes have occurred to the highway since then.