U.S. Route 191 in Utah - History

History

When US-191 was created in 1926, it did not enter Utah, only running from Idaho Falls northeast to Yellowstone National Park. An extension in the late 1930s brought US-191 south to Brigham City, Utah, following what was then SR-41 and is now mostly SR-13. With the construction of I-15 parallel to US-191, the latter route was removed from Utah in the early 1970s, and by 1980 it only existed north of Yellowstone.

In cooperation with Montana, Wyoming, and Arizona, the Utah Department of Transportation submitted an application to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) for an extension of US-191. In Wyoming, it would replace US 187 - a single-state route, which was against current AASHTO policy — and then follow Wyoming Highway 373 to the state line. The portion in Utah replaced several state routes — State Route 260 from Wyoming to Greendale Junction, the majority of SR-44 to US-40 in Vernal, and SR-33 from US-40 in Duchesne to US-6 near Price. After overlapping US-6 past Green River, the routing followed and replaced a large portion of US-163 to a junction southwest of Bluff. Between Bluff and Mexican Water, Arizona, US-191 followed a newly-constructed road across the Navajo Indian Reservation, and then replaced State Route 63, still mostly inside the reservation, to I-40 at Chambers. (It has since been continued along former US 666 to Douglas on the Mexican border.)