History
Originally, the highway functioned as a shortcut for Wichita to Oklahoma City traffic traveling between U.S. 81 at South Haven, KS and U.S. 77 at Three Sands Jct, Oklahoma (where U.S. 77 and State Highway 156 intersect outside Marland, Oklahoma today).
During the 1960s, the highway was extended south to Madill, Oklahoma, replacing the entire length of State Highway 40 from Ponca City, Oklahoma to then-U.S. Highway 66 (near Wellston, Oklahoma) and the portion of State Highway 18 between Shawnee, Oklahoma and Madill, Oklahoma (the segment between US-66 and Shawnee was constructed at this time). Vestiages of the these highways remain in spur routes State Highway 40A, located entirely in Carney, Oklahoma and State Highway 18A, located south of Sulphur, Oklahoma.
During this extension, the alignments of US-77 and US-177 were altered in North Central Oklahoma as follows:
US-77 was relocated to run north from Three Sands Jct to Tonkawa, Oklahoma on the former route of US-177, then east on US-60 to Ponca City, Oklahoma. This also involved a new US-60 alignment between Tonkawa, Oklahoma and Ponca City, Oklahoma, where US-60, US-77, and US-177 all overlap on the same highway (which results in northbound US-77, eastbound US-60, and southbound U.S. Highway 177 traffic running in the same compass direction - east).
Read more about this topic: U.S. Route 177
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