US 395, Part 21: Grant County (John Day to Umatilla County Line)

In the middle of downtown John Day, US 395 meets its next major US highway, US 26 (which we saw advance signage for way back in Riley in Part 18). During US 395's first signage in Oregon, however, this was actually the junction with US 28, now decommissioned. US 28 was part of the original 1926 Federal highway grid and ran entirely in Oregon between Ontario, OR and Florence, OR for a distance of 462 miles. By 1937, it was truncated to Eugene. However, with AASHTO's disapproval of US highways entirely within one state, it was an obvious target for dismantling and was first absorbed into the 1951 extension of US 26, designating the portion from Prineville to Eugene as US 126 in 1952, then later decommissioned outright as OR 126 in 1962, restoring the old road through to Florence.

For its part, US 26 was (in 1926) itself an insignificant non-trunkline route between Ogallala, NE and Dwyer, WY. By 1951, however, it reached Idaho Falls, ID, and then all the way to US 101 in Astoria, OR by 1952, incorporating US 28 from Ontario to Prineville and accepting the remainder of its brother as its spur. Just recently in 2005, US 26 was cut down to Cannon Beach, OR, south of Astoria but still intersecting with US 101, reducing it to a present-day length of 1,510 miles.