Wyoming Highway 59 (WYO 59) is a north–south
state highway that runs from
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...
to the
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
–
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
State Line, where the roadway continues as
Montana Highway 59
Highway 59 (MT 59) is a state highway in Montana, United States, that connects Wyoming Highway 59 (WYO 59) in Wyoming with Montana Highway 200 (MT 200) near the south end of the town of Jordan. WYO 59 continues south to the cit ...
.
Route description
Douglas
![I-25SBExit140](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/I-25SBExit140.JPG)
Wyoming Highway 59 begins its southern end at an intersection with
I-25 BUS/
US 20 BUS/
US 26 BUS/
US 87 BUS (W. Yellowstone Highway), the northern terminus of
Wyoming Highway 94
Wyoming Highway 94 (WYO 94) is a north–south Wyoming State Road located in southern Converse County south of Douglas.
Route description
Wyoming Highway 94 begins its southern end south of Douglas, north of Esterbrook. Converse County ...
(Esterbrook Road), and exit 140 of
Interstate 25 in
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...
.
Highway 59 then intersects
Wyoming Highway 93
Wyoming Highway 93 (WYO 93) is a north–south (northwest-southeast) Wyoming State Road located in central Converse County northwest of Douglas.
Route description
Wyoming Highway 94 begins at Wyoming Highway 59 on the western edge of Dougla ...
just north of its start. Past WYO 93, Highway 59 travels around the northwest side Douglas and acts as a bypass. At there is a junction with
Wyoming Highway 59C
Wyoming Highway 59 (WYO 59) is a north–south state highway that runs from Douglas to the Montana–Wyoming State Line, where the roadway continues as Montana Highway 59.
Route description Douglas
Wyoming Highway 59 begins its southern ...
, a spur of WYO 59 and the former routing of WYO 59 through Douglas.
Douglas to Gillette
![Wyoming Route 59](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Wyoming_Route_59.JPG)
Wyoming Highway 59 along its route between Gillette and Douglas to some is one of the most desolate or barren place in the country. At approximately or halfway to
Wright
Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright i ...
, WYO 59 passes through
Bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
, an unincorporated community in Converse County. Bill consists of a hotel and diner for Union Pacific Railroad employees who take mandatory rests in the town
Between Bill and Wright, WYO 59 leaves
Converse County and enters
Campbell County.
At , Highway 59 intersects
Wyoming Highway 450
Wyoming Highway 450 (WYO 450) is a east-west Wyoming State Road in Campbell and Weston counties that provides travel between WYO 59 at Wright and U.S. Route 16 (US 16) at Newcastle.
Route description
Wyoming Highway 450 begins its western e ...
just south of
Wright
Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright i ...
. WYO 450 heads east from here to
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
. Approximately north of the WYO 450 intersection, Highway 59 intersects
Wyoming Highway 387
Wyoming Highway 387 (WYO 387) is a state road that travels from extreme northeast Natrona County, Wyoming through extreme southeast Johnson County, Wyoming and into southwest Campbell County, Wyoming.
Route description
Wyoming Highway 387 ...
in Wright. WYO 387 travels west to
Midwest and
Edgerton. Wright is a town in Campbell County where settlement began in the 1970s, with the creation of the Black Thunder Coal Mine, the largest mine in the Powder River Basin and most productive mine in the United States. The town itself was incorporated in 1985. Established as a mining town, the majority of people living in Wright are employed by the various mines that surround it.
From Wright to Gillette there are no intersections with major highways and the landscape consists of buttes covered with short grasses. At into its route, Highway 59 enters Gillette as South Douglas Highway.
Gillette
Gillette is a city and county seat of Campbell County. It is a small city centrally located in an area that is vital to the development of vast quantities of American coal, oil, and coal bed methane gas, as a result, the city calls itself the "Energy Capital of the Nation".
At about , WYO 59 intersects
I-90 (Exit 126) and then enters downtown and intersects
US 14
U.S. Route 14 (abbreviated U.S. 14 or US 14), an east–west route, is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It currently has a length of 1,398 miles (2,250 km), but it had a peak length of 1,429 miles (2,300 km). For ...
/
US 16
U.S. Route 16 (US 16) is an east–west United States Highway between Rapid City, South Dakota and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The highway's eastern terminus is at a junction with Interstate 90/U.S. Route 14 (I-90/US 14), conc ...
/
I-90 BUS at a "T" intersection at .
WYO 59 turns west onto 2nd Street and runs concurrent with US 14/US 16/I-90 BUS. Around , WYO 59 begins to turn north and intersects
Wyoming Highway 50 (Skyline Drive). Wyoming Highway 50 used to be routed down 4J Road into Gillette. Sometime between 1980 and 1993, WYO 50 was transferred to Skyline Drive, which provides easier access to Interstate 90. At the intersection with WYO 50, I-90 BUS turns west to run concurrent with Highway 50 to Interstate 90. WYO 59 continues north concurrent with US 14 and US 16 out of Gillette.
East of Gillette
At , and northwest of Gillette, WYO 59 ends its concurrency with US 14/US 16 at a four-way intersection east of the
Gillette–Campbell County Airport
Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport is five miles northwest of Gillette in Campbell County, Wyoming. It has scheduled airline flights.
Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 29,271 passenger boardings (enplanements) in cale ...
. Highway 59 turns east onto its own routing north, US 14/US 16 continue north on their routing west, and Airport Road heads west into the Gillette–Campbell County Airport.
At approximately , WYO 59 passes through
Weston
Weston may refer to:
Places Australia
* Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Weston, New South Wales
* Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra
* Weston Park, Canberra, a park
Canada
* Weston, Nova Scotia
* ...
. Weston is an unincorporated community in northern Campbell County, along the upper
Little Powder River on the southeastern edge of the
Thunder Basin National Grassland
The Thunder Basin National Grassland is located in northeastern Wyoming in the Powder River Basin between the Big Horn Mountains and the Black Hills. The Grassland ranges in elevation from , and the climate is semi-arid. The Grassland provides o ...
. Even though Weston is
unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to:
* Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality
* Unincorporated entity, a type of organization
* Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...
, it has a post office, with the
ZIP code of 82731.
For the rest of the way through Campbell County, Highway 59 parallels
Little Powder River that lies to the highway's east all the way to the state line.
Wyoming Highway 59 ends at the
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
-
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
state line. The highway continues north as
Montana Highway 59
Highway 59 (MT 59) is a state highway in Montana, United States, that connects Wyoming Highway 59 (WYO 59) in Wyoming with Montana Highway 200 (MT 200) near the south end of the town of Jordan. WYO 59 continues south to the cit ...
until its junction with
Montana Highway 200
Montana Highway 200 (MT 200) in the U.S. state of Montana is a route running east–west covering the entire state of Montana. From the starting point at ID 200, near Heron, the highway runs east to ND 200 near Fairview. It is part of a c ...
at
Jordan, Montana
Jordan is a town in and the county seat of Garfield County, Montana, United States. The population was 356 at the 2020 census. It is Garfield County's only incorporated community.
History
Jordan was settled in 1896. The founder, Arthur Jordan, ...
.
Wyoming Highway 59 follows State Control Number P-43 for its entire length.
[Wyoming @ AARoads.com – Wyoming Routes 000-099](_blank)
/ref>
History
Wyoming Highway 59 was formerly numbered Wyoming Highway 185 prior to 1936. From 1936 and 1945, it was known as Wyoming Highway 387
Wyoming Highway 387 (WYO 387) is a state road that travels from extreme northeast Natrona County, Wyoming through extreme southeast Johnson County, Wyoming and into southwest Campbell County, Wyoming.
Route description
Wyoming Highway 387 ...
. After 1945, the road was known as Wyoming Highway 59. U.S. Route 185 was commissioned in 1926 to run from Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
to Orin. It was proposed that US 185 continue north to Gillette, via US 20 between Orin and Douglas, and via Wyoming Highway 59 between Douglas and Gillette. But the road now carrying WYO 59 did not exist. So when Highway 59 was constructed in the late 1920s and early 1930s, it carried the designation US 185. After the Great Recommissioning of 1936, Wyoming 185 was renumbered to Wyoming 387, since the route directly connected to the new U.S. 87, not U.S. 85. In 1945, the 387 designation was changed to WYO 59.Wyoming @ AARoads.com - Wyoming Highway 59
/ref>
Major intersections
Wyoming Highway 59 Connector
Wyoming Highway 59 Connector is a long connector route
A connector is a highway or freeway road that connects to another highway or freeway. It can be part of an interchange such as the MacArthur Maze or a longer roadway such as the Interstate 635.
A connector route is a type of special route or su ...
of WYO 59 in Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...
. WYO 59C is the original alignment of Wyoming Highway 59 through Douglas. The route begins at WYO 59 and heads south 0.45 of a mile to meet WYO 59 (Fourth St.)
See also
*
*
References
* Official 2003 State Highway Map of Wyoming
External links
{{Attached KML
Wyoming State Routes 000-099
WYO 59 – I-25 Bus/US 20 Bus/US 26 Bus/US 87 Bus/WYO 94 to WYO 93
WYO 59 – WYO 93 to WYO 450
WYO 59 – WYO 450 to WYO 387
WYO 59 – WYO 387 to I-90
WYO 59 – I-90 to I-90 Bus/US 14/US 16
WYO 59 – I-90 Bus/US 14/US 16 to I-90 Bus/WYO 50
WYO 59 – I-90 Bus/WYO 50 to US 14/US 16
WYO 59 – US 14/US 16 to MT 59/Montana State Line
City of Douglas webpage
Town of Wright webpage
City of Gillette webpage
Thunder Basin National Grassland – Federal website
Transportation in Converse County, Wyoming
Transportation in Campbell County, Wyoming
059