GARRISON It was once known as “The Road to Nowhere.” It no longer carries that distinction but the moniker may still be appropriate for at least one stretch of aging roadway in North Dakota.

There is a section of old U.S. Highway 83, overgrown with weeds and its old asphalt surface marred with innumerable cracks and crevices, that still remains south of the intersection with N.D. 8 that leads west from today’s modern, four-laned version of U.S. Highway 83 to this McLean County community.

It is not a lengthy stretch of aging highway, only about one and three-quarters of a mile long, but it serves as a fading memory of the role that U.S. Highway 83 once played in the development of the United States.

U.S. Highway 83 was originally a dirt roadway known as the “Great Plains Highway.” It led from near Regina, Sask. to North Dakota and on into Texas and Mexico. In 1924, the Federal Highway Commission established the federal highway system. Highways such as the Great Plains Highway lost their names in favor of a nationwide numbering system. East to west highways were given even numbers, north to south odd numbers. The Great Plains Highway went from an informal roadway to the official designation of U.S. Highway 83.

Oddly, even with national recognition, it would be many years before U.S. Highway 83 would make the transformation from dirt and gravel to paved roadway. It took more than 30 years before the final section of the north-south route through the country was paved. That occurred in September 1959 near Thedford, Neb. Thousands of people turned out for the celebratory event.

In North Dakota, in the late ’70s, U.S. Highway 83 was in the process of changing from a winding, two-lane road to a modern four-lane highway. Some of the roadway was straightened, too. That is how a small section of the old highway near Garrison came to be abandoned to the west of U.S. Highway 83 today.

The small section of old highway is still used by a few vehicles today, mostly hunters and sightseers. The deteriorating and overgrown surface begins about three-quarters of a mile south of the Garrison turn-off on U.S. Highway 83 and ends about a quarter-mile north of the Totten Trail. The roadway is a broad “S” curve adjacent to the long ago closed Custer Mine. The roadway fell victim to the straightening of the new four-lane version of U.S. Highway 83.

Time has taken a toll on the forgotten section of highway. Today it appears as a paved version of a two-track prairie trail. Weeds have grown in an increasing number of cracks in the old asphalt. Vehicles choosing to venture onto the old surface must do so very carefully to avoid the numerous and growing potholes. In places, faded yellow paint can still be seen that dotted the centerline of the roadway and continuous yellow lines that marked “no passing” zones.

Today, U.S. Highway 83 primarily follows the route of the old Great Plains Highway that led from Minot to Abilene, Texas, a distance of 1,235 miles. Over the years, the route has changed somewhat but remains a viable artery of transportation from Canada to Mexico.

The northern-most reach of the highway is Swan River, Manitoba, where the highway is known only as 83 as compared to U.S. Highway 83 south of Canada. The highway runs south from Swan River all the way to Brownsville, Texas and then across the southern U.S. border to Matamoros, Mexico.