Route Description from 1925 State Highway Map:
Beginning at Claremore at a connection with State Highway 7, via Pryor, Salina, Spavinaw, and Jay, to the Arkansas state line.
Route 20 in the original Oklahoma highway numbering scheme was the epitome of a state highway; it began at Claremore and served several small communities on its way to the Arkansas state line. This basic idea, connecting several relatively small population centers and linking them to more major towns and highways, is precisely what modern state highways still do today. Below is the approximate path of the original Route 20 using modern highways.
The original Route 20 began in Claremore, at a junction with Route 7, which eventually became US 66 and is now State Highway 66. From this point, Route 20, just as it does today, traveled east through Pryor and on past Spavinaw before reaching its eastern terminus at the Arkansas state line. This is an extremely rare case where a state highway has maintained its number for its entire original length since 1925.
In the years since its original designation, State Highway 20 has been extended quite a bit to the west, but the original portion of the route is in basically the same place it has been for over 80 years. We believe the majority of the route shown on the map above was laid out and graveled in the late 1920s, then paved in the late 1940s. This is one of the very few opportunities in Oklahoma to not only drive a very old alignment that is still a highway, but an alignment that has kept the same number since the initial designation in 1925. Thanks for reading this information about a true survivor of a highway.
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Base Map Data Copyright DeLorme USA, http://www.delorme.com
State Highway Shields created by Ken Parker of Oklahoma Bridge & Highways Group.