Highway 59 in the U.S. State

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

 is a route running northerly from the Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

 state line to an intersection with Montana Highway 200

Montana Highway 200

Highway 200 in the U.S. State of Montana is a route running westerly covering the entire state of Montana, from the starting point of ND 200 near Fairview, Montana to ID 200, near Heron, Montana...

 near the south end of the town of Jordan

Jordan, Montana

Jordan is a town in and the county seat of Garfield County, Montana, United States. The population was 364 at the 2000 census.-History:Originally settled in 1896, Jordan received a post office on July 11, 1899...

, a distance of approximately 194 miles (312.2 km). At the Wyoming state line, the road becomes Wyoming Highway 59, which continues south 57 miles (91.7 km) to the city of Gillette

Gillette, Wyoming

Gillette is a city in and the county seat of Campbell County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 29,087 in 2010. Gillette is a city centrally located in an area involved with the development of vast quantities of American coal, oil, and coal bed methane gas...

. The landscape traversed by Highway 59 is mostly hilly and arid, largely used for open-range grazing; the only major commercial areas are the towns of Broadus

Broadus, Montana

Broadus is a town in and the county seat of Powder River County, Montana, United States. The population was 451 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Broadus is located at ....

 and Miles City

Miles City, Montana

Miles City is a city in and the county seat of Custer County, Montana, United States. The population was 8,123 at the 2010 census.- History :...

.

For approximately four miles in and near Broadus, Highway 59 is concurrent

Concurrency (road)

A concurrency, overlap, or coincidence in a road network is an instance of one physical road bearing two or more different highway, motorway, or other route numbers...

 with U.S. Route 212

U.S. Route 212

U.S. Route 212 is a spur of U.S. Route 12. Though it currently never intersects U.S. 12, it once had an eastern terminus at U.S. 12 in St. Paul, Minnesota. It runs for 949 miles from Minnesota Highway 62 at Edina, Minnesota to Yellowstone National Park.U.S. 212 passes through the states of...

.

History

The current Highway 59 is an amalgam of three roadway segments that were each formerly numbered separately. The highway south of Broadus was originally designated as Montana Secondary Highway 319. From Broadus to Miles City, the highway was U.S. Route 312 until 1981, and Highway 59 north of Miles City was originally Montana Highway 22. Although US 312 continued west from Miles City to Billings

Billings, Montana

Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, and is the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area, the largest metropolitan area in over...

, this was an overlap

Concurrency (road)

A concurrency, overlap, or coincidence in a road network is an instance of one physical road bearing two or more different highway, motorway, or other route numbers...

 with US 10

U.S. Route 10

U.S. Route 10 is an east–west United States highway formed in 1926. Though it never became the cross-country highway suggested by the "0" as the last digit of its route number, U.S...

, and only the part between Miles City and Broadus was independent. However, from 1959 to 1962, US 312 extended west to Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

, and its east end was at US 12

U.S. Route 12

U.S. Route 12 or US 12 is an east–west United States highway, running from Grays Harbor on the Pacific Ocean, in the state of Washington, to downtown Detroit, for almost . As a thoroughfare, it has mostly been supplanted by I-90 and I-94, but remains an important road for local travel.The...

 in Forsyth

Forsyth, Montana

Forsyth is a city in and the county seat of Rosebud County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,944 at the 2000 census. Forsyth was established in 1876 as the first settlement on the Yellowstone River, and in 1882 residents named the town after General James William Forsyth who commanded...

. In 1962, US 212

U.S. Route 212

U.S. Route 212 is a spur of U.S. Route 12. Though it currently never intersects U.S. 12, it once had an eastern terminus at U.S. 12 in St. Paul, Minnesota. It runs for 949 miles from Minnesota Highway 62 at Edina, Minnesota to Yellowstone National Park.U.S. 212 passes through the states of...

, which had ended in Miles City, was rerouted to absorb former US 312 southwest of Billings, and US 312 was extended southeast to Broadus over former US 212.