State Route 488 (SR 488) is an east–west
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 ...
in
White Pine County,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
. The route covers Lehman Caves Road connecting the town of
Baker
A baker is a tradesperson who bakes and sometimes sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery.
History
Ancient history
Since grains ha ...
to
Great Basin National Park
Great Basin National Park is an American national park located in White Pine County in east-central Nevada, near the Utah border, established in 1986. The park is most commonly entered by way of Nevada State Route 488, which is connected to U. ...
. The route existed as State Route 74 prior to 1976. SR 488 has been designated a
Nevada Scenic Byway
The U.S. state of Nevada maintains a system of scenic byways throughout the state. Currently, there are 20 designated state scenic byways. Some of these state scenic byways have also been incorporated into national byway designations.
State sce ...
.
Route description
SR 488 begins at a cattle guard on Lehman Caves Road, east of the
Lehman Caves Visitor Center and main roadway entrance to the developed areas of Great Basin National Park. From there, the route travels easterly through desert terrain, roughly paralleling the course of
Lehman Creek Lehman may refer to:
People
* Lehman (surname)
* Lehman Engel (1910–1982), American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film
* Lehman Kahn (1827–1915), Belgian educationalist and writer
Places and physical features
...
as it travels down towards the town of Baker. The highway ends at an intersection with Baker Road (
SR 487) in Baker.
History
An unimproved road connecting Lehman Caves to the state highway system first appears on official Nevada state highway maps as far back as 1937, although this road traveled more northeasterly than the current alignment of Lehman Caves Road and connected to Baker Road north of the town.
This early iteration of State Route 74 was shown on some maps.
However, the state's tourist maps did not show the existence of State Route 74 until 1942—by then, the highway route had been changed to its present-day alignment, meeting then-SR 73 at Baker.
The new route was upgraded to a gravel road by 1948,
and was fully paved by 1949.
SR 74 was eliminated from the state highway system as part of a mass renumbering of Nevada's state routes. State Route 488 was designated to replace SR 74 on July 1, 1976.
This change in highway numbers was first seen on the 1978–79 edition of the state highway map.
Since its re-designation as SR 488, Lehman Caves Road has not undergone any significant changes.
The Nevada Department of Transportation designated State Route 488 as a
Nevada Scenic Byway
The U.S. state of Nevada maintains a system of scenic byways throughout the state. Currently, there are 20 designated state scenic byways. Some of these state scenic byways have also been incorporated into national byway designations.
State sce ...
on March 27, 2000, simultaneously with SR 487 and a nearby portion of
U.S. Routes 6 and
50.
Major intersections
See also
*
*
References
External links
*{{commons category-inline, Nevada State Route 488
Photos of State Route 488 (Nevada DOT)
488
488
Transportation in White Pine County, Nevada