State Route 722 (SR 722) is a

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 Churchill County and Lander County in the U.S. state of

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 highway is an old routing of

U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlanti ...

(US 50), and previously the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

. What is now route 722 crosses the

Desatoya Mountains The Desatoya Mountains are located in central Nevada in the western United States, approximately 117 miles east of Reno by road. The range runs in a southwest-northeasterly direction along the border of Churchill and Lander counties, reaching a m ...

via Carroll Summit. The US 50 designation was removed from this alignment in favor of the modern route that traverses the Desatoya Mountains via New Pass Summit, which is lower and with an easier approach on both sides than Carroll Summit.

Route description

SR 722 deviates from US 50 near the roadhouse at Middlegate. It then crosses 2 summits, Eastgate at , and Carroll Summit at . There is a small settlement at Eastgate. On the west approach to Carroll is an old, unmaintained

rest area A rest area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a motorway, expressway, or highway, at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary roads. Other names include motorway servi ...

. The highway then traverses a long desert valley named Smith Creek Valley and another summit, Railroad Pass at , before entering the

Reese River The Reese River is a tributary of the Humboldt River, located in central Nevada in the western United States. The Reese rises in the southern section of the Toiyabe Range, on the flanks of Arc Dome. In its upper reaches, the Reese River is a ...

valley where the highway reunites with US 50 just west of Austin.

History

As a dirt road, the routing of the

across Nevada changed several times. The original route of the

Pony Express The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pik ...

, from which the Nevada portion of the Lincoln Highway was based, crossed the Desatoya range at Basque Summit, at . The route used an alignment that is now a dirt road called "Old Overland Road". At one time, the Lincoln Highway was routed on a route similar to the modern US 50 between Middlegate and Austin via New Pass. The highway now numbered 722 was first constructed in 1924–1925 as part of improvements to the

. The intent was to shorten the route by . While the route over Carroll Summit and Railroad Pass was shorter and more scenic, efforts began to revert to the New Pass Route as early as the 1930s. The route over New Pass Summit was being paved by 1967 and US 50 was re-routed back over New Pass Summit once finished.

Major intersections

Note:

Milepost A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

s in Nevada reset at

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

lines.

References

External links

Nevada State Route 722
at

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an American-based online magazine and travel company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via user-generated content ...

{{commons category

722 Year 722 ( DCCXXII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 722 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became ...

Lincoln Highway U.S. Route 50 Transportation in Lander County, Nevada Transportation in Churchill County, Nevada

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links