Highway 173 (AR 173, Ark. 173, and Hwy. 173) is a former

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

Craighead County, Arkansas Craighead County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 111,231. The county has two county seats — Jonesboro, Arkansas, Jonesboro and Lak ...

. Between designation as a state highway in 1940 and decommissioning to the city street system in 1979, it was maintained by the Arkansas Highway Department (AHD), now known as the

Arkansas Department of Transportation The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT), formerly the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, is a government department in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its mission is to provide a safe, efficient, aesthetically pleasing and env ...

(ArDOT).

Route description

Highway 173 began at US Highway 63 (US 63, present-day AR 18) east of Jonesboro, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Craighead County. It ran due north as a section line road past a

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

camp through an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

. Continuing north, AR 173 crossed the

St. Louis Southwestern Railway The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company , known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", was a Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee ...

tracks and St. Louis and San Francisco Railway tracks and passed through the campus of Arkansas State College (now known as

Arkansas State University Arkansas State University (A-State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the Arkansas State University System and the second-largest university in the st ...

), an area known as Aggie (the former nickname of the college's athletic teams). AR 173 continued north a short distance to AR 1 (present day AR 91), where it terminated.

History

Highway 173 first appeared on the 1940 state highway map east of Jonesboro. By 1961, the area had been annexed into Jonesboro, and the

Arkansas State Highway Commission The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT), formerly the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, is a government department in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its mission is to provide a safe, efficient, aesthetically pleasing and en ...

extended the designation south to AR 18 (Nettleton Road). On February 22, 1967, the designation was extended south to US 63 along a new terrain bypass (current I-555). On November 26, 1969, the Highway Commission approved a request by the Craighead county judge to accept a segment of AR 226 into the county road system in exchange for extending AR 173 south to AR 1 at Apt (current AR 1B); this section was renumbered to AR 1 on August 28, 1974 following construction of improvements along the route.. The remainder of AR 173 was deleted on April 27, 1979 in a swap involving many highways requested by the Craighead County Judge.

Major intersections

This table reflects the highway's junctions upon creation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arkansas Highway 173 (1940-1979) 173 Transportation in Craighead County, Arkansas