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Besides being a picture of my friend Lowell Nafziger of Rockford, Illinois, taking my picture, it's also a depiction of the sometimes haphazard route marking one commonly finds in New Mexico. This is the junction of U.S. 64 and NM-68 in Taos, and though it's not evident from this angle, the road also goes straight through the intersection into the Plaza. As the NM-68 sign on the signal post indicates, 68 goes to the left, while (even though you're not told) U.S. 64 turns right. The NM-68 sign you see is the only sign that directs traffic at this intersection. There is no advance signage describing this junction or the destination cities, and nothing to indicate that U.S. 64 goes to the right. I wonder how much traffic blunders straight ahead into the Taos Plaza. | ||
| A close-up of the NM-68 sign on the signal
post, showing the odd smaller font used for the numbers and the larger
diameter zia than normal on the sign. Seems counterintuitive to use this
layout for two-digit numbers.
Barely readable on the signal crossarm is the sign for EB U.S. 64 traffic, indicating NM 68 goes straight and "NM 64" goes left. |
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Rich Piehl was kind enough to take
pictures of examples of New Mexico's unique Travelers Services signs that
are placed on the Interstates approaching medium-sized cities (generally
those in the 5000-25,000 population range). These signs enumerate the
types of travelers' services available there. I'm always intrigued by the
"modern" service stations line. (Not counted are stations with a glass
reservoir on the top of the pump, I guess).
The first picture at left was taken on I-40 approaching Grants in a snow storm, thus the fuzzy photo. Milan is a smaller town just west of Grants and located more or less on the same business loop of I-40, though there is an intervening exit. I guess Milan isn't big enough for its own Travelers Services sign. The lower picture is approaching Gallup, the next day after the storm had moved through. Gallup is larger than Grants and thus has more to offer. These Travelers Services signs are in addition to the standard services signs featuring logos of businesses near the freeway. | ||
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State Entrances: This is the sign entering north of Costilla on NM-522 that used to be at the top of the home page. Until a few years ago, New Mexico used this as their standard WELCOME sign on more major routes. | ||
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There are other styles as well, though. Here are a
couple more subdued welcome signs.
First, left is the entrance at NM-551 (CO-389) just south of Branson, CO. The hill in the background is Davis Mesa, part of the Raton Mesa complex of volcanic hills that extends east into Oklahoma. Note that the No Littering message is far more prominent than the welcome. | ||
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This is the entrance from Oklahoma (OK-325) onto NM-456 just west of Kenton, OK. This sign is colored differently from the one above. There is still a prominent No Littering sign in the background. | ||
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Looking the other way at the same
location, there is a partially inaccurate sign posted. It is the end of
New Mexico state maintenance, but the Carrizozo Creek bridge is
under Oklahoma DOT jurisdiction. At the end of the bridge is an empty sign
frame that once held a "Welcome to Oklahoma" sign - this was taken in 2004
and the sign has since been replaced. The first OK-325 marker is just
around the curve at the end of the bridge. Google Streetview, which is
everywhere, shows that there is now a new "meat cleaver" OK
marker there. | ||
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This is the current version of the New
Mexico "Welcome" sign, highlighting the state's official vegetable. Chile,
that is (what, you were expecting broccoli?). This particular sign is a
small size version, located on NM-118 at the Arizona border. This is old
Route 66 and also a virtual frontage road for I-40, which explains the
oncoming truck traffic to your right. I just had to include the whole
photo because it's so pretty, not just the enlarged portion with the
sign. On the interstates, you see a much larger
version of this sign. Photo taken October 2008 | ||
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Entering New Mexico from Texas on U.S. 87
southeast of Clayton. The "Entering Mountain Time Zone" sign in the
foreground is, inexplicably, in and by Texas (note the Clearview font and
the use of round signpost). The side road where my car is parked is in New
Mexico, based on the use of different signpost there. No pavement changes
in the road, probably because a recent project to complete the
divided highway on the Texas side extended over onto the New Mexico
side to meet the existing divided road. The main reason for taking the
photo here was to show the first view of Rabbit Ears Mesa behind Clayton,
the easternmost member of the Raton Mesa group, which is just visible here
(over the trunk of the car) at the state line. Nothing but flat east of
here! Also note the obligatory "Do Not Litter" sign and the "Welcome to
New Mexico" sign near the crest of the hill. Photo taken June 2009 | ||
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The Two Corners! The Four Corners is so overdone, we decided to look for the northeast corner of New Mexico, where it joins Oklahoma and Colorado. It's not hard to find and doesn't require the Jeep we used to get there. This monument, constructed around 1909 (before New Mexico became a state, and only two years after Oklahoma did), is located at the precise state corner as evidenced by sighting along two fence lines that follow the New Mexico border. Some wanker thoughtfully removed the USGS benchmark that had been set in the top of the monument. | ||
| Doesn't Anyone Know What Route This
Is? Looks like a nice sign cluster in Deming, along E. Pine Street. Trouble is --- U.S. 70 isn't routed through Deming, though the detail on any of my maps isn't sufficient to define when U.S. 70 was pulled off what is now BL I-10. I'd guess no later than 1988, since that's when New Mexico began to make its remaining U.S. routes that ran concurrent with interstates "invisible." And even more unusual, U.S. 80 hasn't existed in New Mexico since about 1990. Now, maybe NMDOT is just forgetful, but the U.S. 70 sign is a modern-design, metal sign, and the date on the back indicates it was installed in 2002. The U.S. 80 sign is the older style sign made of wood, so it probably dates from the 1980s if not before (no date on it). Unless I missed something on the western side of town, these are the only markers for either of these routes in the city. Certainly nothing is marked from I-10 except BL I-10. Photo taken March 2008 |
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And for an even whackier piece of signage, how about
this from Lordsburg? Before I-10, this was the U.S. 70-80 junction, and if
you substitute U.S. 80 for the NM-80 signs, it was quite correct. Now,
when U.S. 80 was eliminated in New Mexico, it ran concurrent with I-10
(with the possible exception of loops through the three largest cities
along I-10), except for the short piece that ran completely independent of
the interstate. That segment began several miles west of Lordsburg, ran
south and west and entered Arizona. It then looped south as far as the
Mexican border at Douglas and then back northwest to rejoin I-10 at
Benson. When 80 was decommissioned as a U.S. route, both Arizona and New
Mexico redesignated that road as AZ- and NM-80 respectively. But, that
route does not extend as far east as Lordsburg, and thus the NM-80 signs
here are completely erroneous.
In fairness, these old signs are behind a diagrammatic BGS (Big Green Sign) that accurately shows the connections at this interchange with BL I-10 (old U.S. 80 through Lordsburg), and has no mention of any kind of route 80. Photo taken March 2008 |
