The modern route of U.S. Route 50 between
Ely, Nevada and
Green River, Utah is the third iteration.
First iteration In 1926, when the
U.S. Highway system was first announced, there was a gap in US-50 between Ely and
Thistle. At the time the states of Utah and Nevada were feuding about which of the old
auto trails would be paved and used for the new
U.S. Highway System. Nevada favored the
Lincoln Highway, which the modern US-50 closely follows in that state. Utah refused to consider the Lincoln Highway west of
Salt Lake City. Officials perceived that route would carry all California bound traffic directly to Nevada while passing through very few communities in Utah. Utah instead favored the
Victory Highway (modern
Interstate 80 west of Salt Lake) and the
Arrowhead Trail (modern
Interstate 15). By favoring these routes Utah could force travelers destined for southern California to use a different route than those destined for northern California, with both of these traversing through more cities in Utah than the Lincoln Highway. The Arrowhead trail was especially beneficial to Utah as it passed through many communities in the state, but only
Las Vegas in Nevada. Utah prevailed and US-50 did not continue to follow the Lincoln Highway to Salt Lake City as Nevada had wanted. The first continuous route of US-50 across eastern Nevada and western Utah was an arch shaped route. US-50 proceeded north from Ely along what is now numbered
U.S. Route 93 and
Alternate US-93 where the highway would merge with the
Victory Highway (
U.S. Route 40 along the
Wendover Cut-off, since replaced by I-80) to Salt Lake. From there the highway returned to Green River via what is now numbered
State Route 201,
U.S. Route 89 and
U.S. Route 6.
Second iteration The second iteration has its origins with the formation of US-6. In 1937, US-6 was extended west from its former terminus at
Greeley, Colorado to
Long Beach, California. In eastern Utah the route used the existing alignment of US-50. However, in western Utah the route used an
unpaved road through Delta reconnecting with US-50 in Ely. Nevada first showed this alignment as paved and signed as US 50 in their 1954 map. With this change, US-6/50 ran concurrent from Ely to
Grand Junction, Colorado. The paved version did not exactly follow the unpaved roads. The dirt route passed through the numerous mountain ranges of the
Great Basin using Marjum canyon and Marjum Pass to and through the
Tule Valley. Once paved, the route was relocated to follow the north shore of
Sevier Lake, which reduced the number of mountain ranges crossed. This iteration of US-50 has its origins in a dispute over the route of
Interstate 70 in Utah. While I-70 was in the planning stage Colorado lobbied for an extension of the original proposal to run across Colorado and into Utah. Utah supported an extension using then US-6/50 to connect
Denver, Colorado with Salt Lake City. However, federal planners did not see value in this route and instead supported a route that could be used to connect Denver with
Los Angeles, California. I-70 was built using the federally selected route. In 1976, US-50 was changed again to a routing mostly concurrent with I-70. The portion of modern US-50 between Delta and
Scipio had been previously numbered State Route 26, East of Green River I-70 closely follows the original route of US-50, with some minor straightening by Crescent Junction,
Cisco, and Westwater. ==Major intersections==