American Highway Code US Route 56 History
. During the early hours of 1950s, towns all along what was then the K-45 corridor, connecting Ellsworth (Kansas) all along the way to Oklahoma state line on Elkhart, created the Mid-Continent Diagonal Highway Association to move forward for a new highway commencing Springer, New Mexico (on US 85) northeast across the Oklahoma Panhandle, along K-45, and continuing towards Manitowoc, Wisconsin on Lake Michigan.
. By mid-1954, it was being promoted as U.S. Route 55 between the Great Lakes and the Southwest. The first submissions to the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) to discover the route were made in 1954; all placed the northeast end at Manitowoc, Wisconsin absorbing US 151 as of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, while they varied on whether the southwest end which has to be at Albuquerque, New Mexico or else Nogales, Arizona.
. The first route considered in northeast Kansas was through US 40 from Ellsworth to Topeka and K-4 as well as US 59 via Atchison towards St. Joseph (Missouri). A revised route which has been adopted in March 1955, due to AASHO objections to the original route, which overlapped with the other U.S. Highways for over half of its length, followed K-14, K-18, US 24, K-63, K-16, and US 59 by way of Lincoln as well as Manhattan .
. In July, the US 50-N Association projected a plan that would have eliminated U.S. Route 50N by routing US 55 along the majority of its length, all the way from Larned east to Baldwin Junction, and then along US 59 towards Lawrence as well as K-10 to Kansas City; towns on US 50N west of Larned, that have been bypassed which led a successful fight against this.
. However, during September of that year, the Kansas Highway Commission has accepted that plan, taking US 55 east towards Kansas City (Missouri). On June 27, 1956, the AASHO Route Numbering Committee considered that the refined plan for US 55, among Springer, New Mexico as well as Kansas City (Missouri), with a short US 155 all along the remaining portion of US 50N from Larned west towards Garden City and this committee has approved the request, but since the proposed route was more east-west than north-south and they changed it to an even number - US 56 - and the spur to US 156.
. U.S. 56 initially took a dissimilar route connecting Boise City, Oklahoma as well as Elkhart, Kansas and the original route which follows U.S. 64 east to an intersection south of Eva. After that there is a split off from north towards Elkhart. During 1961, the section north of U.S. 64 which has been overlaid with State Highway 95.During the subsequent year, U.S. 56 was rerouted in excess of SH-114, bringing it to its existing diagonal path across the Oklahoma Panhandle. The old alignment is still resting on the Oklahoma highway system as the north half of SH-95.
