Highway 261 (AR 261, Ark. 261, and Hwy. 261) is a designation for two

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 ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

s in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. Both are short rural highways in the

Arkansas Delta The Arkansas Delta is one of the six natural regions of the state of Arkansas. Willard B. Gatewood Jr., author of ''The Arkansas Delta: Land of Paradox'', says that rich cotton lands of the Arkansas Delta make that area "The Deepest of the Deep ...

. Created in 1957, the longer segment connects several small communities to Interstate 40 (I-40). The shorter route was created in 1973 between a

Horton Horton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Horton Glacier, Adelaide Island, Antarctica * Horton Ledge, Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica Australia * Horton, Queensland, a town and locality in the Bundaberg Region * Horton River (Australia), ...

and Highway 1 in Caldwell. Both segments are maintained by 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 en ...

(ARDOT).

Route description

Both highways are located in the Western Lowlands Pleistocene Valley Trains ecoregion within the

Mississippi Alluvial Plain The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain is an alluvial plain created by the Mississippi River on which lie parts of seven U.S. states, from southern Louisiana to southern Illinois (Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Lou ...

, broad, nearly level, agriculturally-dominated

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the sma ...

with flat, clayey, poorly-drained soils commonly called the Arkansas Delta in the state. The two routes are separated by approximately along St. Francis County Road 255, a paved road. No segment of Highway 261 has been listed as part of the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility.

South Plains to Palestine

Highway 261 begins at Highway 259 at

South Plains The South Plains is a region in northwest Texas, consisting of 24 counties. The main crop is cotton. Counties The South Plains region includes 24 counties: The northernmost four (Parmer, Castro, Swisher, and Briscoe) are also considered to be p ...

, an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in northwest Lee County. The highway runs east across flat fields used for

row crops A row crop is a crop that can be planted in rows wide enough to allow it to be tilled or otherwise cultivated by agricultural machinery, machinery tailored for the seasonal activities of row crops. Such crops are sown by drilling or transplant ...

to an intersection with Highway 121 at Holub Crossing. The highway turns north, continuing through sparsely populated agricultural areas, including the unincorporated community

Gill A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

, before crossing into St. Francis County. Highway 261 continues north as a

section line road In many jurisdictions in the United States, roads run along every section line, giving access to previously remote areas and serving in many instances as firebreaks. A road or arterial in which the centerline is laid out along a section line bound ...

through

Humphrey Humphrey is both a masculine given name and a surname. An earlier form, not attested since Medieval times, was Hunfrid. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Medieval period :''Ordered chronologically'' *Hunfrid of P ...

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, a small city in the Arkansas Delta. The highway intersects US Highway 70 (US 70) near

Palestine–Wheatley High School Palestine–Wheatley High School is a comprehensive six-year public high school in Palestine, Arkansas, United States. It is one of four public high schools located in St. Francis County and is the sole high school administered by Palestine– ...

before becoming Parker Avenue and entering a commercial district. The highway parallels the

Union Pacific Railway The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

tracks before turning north, becoming Main Street. Along Main Street, the highway passes Palestine City Hall prior to a junction with I-40. Highway 261 ends just north of the last freeway ramp at the northern city limits, with the roadway continuing north as St. Francis County Road 255. The ARDOT maintains Highway 261 like all other parts of the state highway system. As a part of these responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic using its roads in surveys using a metric called

average annual daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

(AADT). ARDOT estimates the traffic level for a segment of roadway for any average day of the year in these surveys. As of 2017, AADT was estimated as 240 vehicles per day (VPD) near the southern terminus, 670 VPD north of the Highway 121 intersection, 920 north of the St. Francis County line, and 2,500 in Palestine between I-40 and US 70. For reference, the

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test quality control, protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway design and construction through ...

(AASHTO), classifies roads with fewer than 400 vehicles per day as a ''very low volume local road''.

Horton to Caldwell

State maintenance begins at an intersection with CR 255 / CR 265 in Horton, an unincorporated community in rural St. Francis County. The highway runs due east, crossing the

L'Anguille River L'Anguille River (pronounced "lan-GWEEL" "LANG-gill" or locally as "LANE-GEE") is a tributary of the St. Francis River, approximately 110 mi (175 km) long, in northeastern Arkansas in the United States. Via the St. Francis River, it is ...

lowlands and adjacent

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s. The highway continues east through row crop agricultural fields. It turns right toward the small town of Caldwell, crossing the Union Pacific Railway tracks shortly after entering the municipal limits. Just east of this crossing, Highway 261 intersects Highway 1, where it terminates. In 2016, the AADT was 750 near the route's midpoint.

Major intersections

References

External links