Utah State Route 196
Encyclopedia
State Route 196 is a north–south state highway
State highway
State highway, state road or state route can refer to one of three related concepts, two of them related to a state or provincial government in a country that is divided into states or provinces :#A...
located entirely in Tooele County, Utah
Tooele County, Utah
Tooele County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2000, the population was 40,735 and by 2005 was estimated at 51,311. Its county seat and largest city is Tooele....
that begins at SR-199 and ends at I-80
Interstate 80 in Utah
In the U.S. state of Utah, Interstate 80 runs east–west through northern part of the state, passing through the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, the Wasatch Mountains and Echo canyon. In western Utah the highway was built along the corridor of the Victory...
. It passes through Skull Valley
Skull Valley
The Skull Valley Indian Reservation is the Goshute Indian reservation located approximately 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah. It belongs to the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah, a federally recognized tribe....
, and was added to the state highway system in 1998 to prevent the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians from using their reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
to store nuclear waste.
Route description
SR-196 begins at the junction with SR-199 near the control gate at Dugway Proving Grounds. The route travels north through the Skull Valley Indian Reservation and past the ghost town of Iosepa. The route ends at the junction with I-80Interstate 80 in Utah
In the U.S. state of Utah, Interstate 80 runs east–west through northern part of the state, passing through the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, the Wasatch Mountains and Echo canyon. In western Utah the highway was built along the corridor of the Victory...
at the Rowley Junction interchange.
History
Skull Valley Road, then an unimproved dirt trail, was part of the Lincoln HighwayLincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
from its creation in 1913 until about 1920, when an improved gravel road
Gravel road
A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. They are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and the United States. In New Zealand, they are known as 'metal roads'...
over Johnson Pass
Johnson Pass
Johnson Creek Summit is a mountain pass through the Kenai Mountains in Southcentral Alaska. It is 23 miles long, and the maximum elevation of the pass is 1450 ft. There is a backpacking trail traversing the entire pass, with access from the south via the Sterling Highway and from the north via...
(present SR-199) was built with the help of a donation from Carl G. Fisher
Carl G. Fisher
Carl Graham Fisher was an American entrepreneur. Despite having severe astigmatism, he became a seemingly tireless pioneer and promoter of the automotive, auto racing, and real estate development industries...
. By the 1950s, Tooele County had constructed a paved county road through the valley. In the early 1990s, the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians began planning a nuclear waste storage facility in Skull Valley
Skull Valley
The Skull Valley Indian Reservation is the Goshute Indian reservation located approximately 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah. It belongs to the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah, a federally recognized tribe....
. At the urging of Governor Mike Leavitt, the Utah Transportation Commission added the road to the state highway system in January 1998 as SR-196, and in February the state legislature concurred and added the new route to the highway code. Signs were posted in March prohibiting transport of high-level nuclear waste on the new state highway except by permit. The next year, the commission designated two "statewide public safety interest highways" - State Routes 900 and 901 - each consisting of several low-quality Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...
and county-maintained roadways branching off I-80 and SR-196, respectively. Unlike a typical state highway, the roads were not to be improved to higher standards; the purpose of the designation was to prevent construction of a waste-carrying rail line branching off the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
's Shafter Subdivision
Shafter Subdivision
The Shafter Subdivision is a rail line owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad as part of the Central Corridor in the U.S. states of Nevada and Utah. The line begins in Elko, and travels east to the rail siding of Smelter in Utah, at the junction with the Lynndyl Subdivision of the former...
(ex-Western Pacific Railroad
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California...
), which would cross these roads.
Major intersections
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