U.S. Route 16

U.S. Highway 16 is an east-west United States highway between Rapid City, South Dakota and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Termini

As of 2004, the highway's eastern terminus is at a junction with Interstate 90, duplexed with I-190, outside of Rapid City, South Dakota. The western terminus is the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

Historic termini

US-16 route originally connected Detroit, Michigan with Yellowstone, including a ferry link across Lake Michigan between Muskegon, Michigan and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Michigan, the route was in use long before automobiles and was known to white settlers as the Grand River Trail, and prior to the designation of U.S. routes, had been designated as Michigan State Highway 16. In Michigan, most of US-16 became Interstate 96 and a segment of Grand River Avenue in Detroit ultimately became Michigan State Highway 5. US-16 was later decommissioned in Wisconsin, Minnesota and eastern South Dakota to its present termini. Between Rapid City and Dexter, Minnesota, it has been supplanted by Interstate 90. In eastern Minnesota it is now Minnesota State Highway 16; in Wisconsin it is now Wisconsin State Highway 16. In South Dakota it was replaced by various state highways (including SD Highway 38) and county roads: generally, in West River the old alignment was transferred to county responsibility entirely, while in East River it remained a state-maintained highway.

What remains of US 16 is a route that passes through the towns of Cody, Wyoming, Greybull, Wyoming, Worland, Wyoming, Buffalo, Wyoming, Gillette, Wyoming, Newcastle, Wyoming, and Custer, South Dakota and gives good access to Mount Rushmore. Between Buffalo and Rapid City, Interstate 90 is a much more direct (but not necessarily more scenic) route.

An "Alternate US 16" passes through Powell, Wyoming; an older Alternate US 16 in South Dakota has become South Dakota State Highway 240. US Highway 16A is a scenic route which divides from US 16 at Custer, passing through Custer State Park, Norbeck Wildlife Refuge, Mount Rushmore National Monument, and Keystone before rejoining the parent highway at the Keystone Wye. US 16A is famous for its scenic, one-lane tunnels aligned to frame the faces on Mount Rushmore, its "pigtail bridges," and its sections of divided highway but with single (and narrow) lanes on each roadway. It is the only route which can be used to drive through Custer State Park without having to pay an entrance fee for the park, provided the traveler does not stop in the Park. From the Wye to Rapid City, US 16 is a divided, four-lane highway, with the two roadways separated by up to a half-mile in some places, including the old gold-mining town of Rockerville, South Dakota which is contained entirely between the two roadways.

States traversed

US-16 passes through the following states:

South Dakota
Wyoming
See Wisconsin State Highway 16 for Wisconsin's portion of former US-16.

Michigan

M-16 was a state highway in the 1920s, running from Detroit to south of Muskegon. It became US-16 in 1926 when the U.S. Highway network began.

Much of US-16 in Michigan has been re-signed as Interstate 96 to avoid signage redundancy (or a long distance concurrency).

Related U.S. Routes

External links

References