U.S. Route 666

 

U.S. Route 491 is a north-south United States highway. One of the newest additions to the U.S. Highway system, it was commissioned in 2003 as a renumbering of U.S. Route 666. With the 666 designation, this route was given the nickname "The Devil's Highway" because of the common Christian belief that 666 is the Number of the Beast. The highway serves the Four Corners region of the United States.

by Mark Yancey Mowery

 

The route was first commissioned in 1926 as US 666. The number was appropriate per AASHTO's guidelines as the 6th spur along the highway's parent U.S. Route 66, branching off at Gallup, New Mexico. At that time its northern terminus was in Cortez, Colorado at an intersection with then U.S. Route 450 (modern U.S. Route 160).

The route serves the states of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Until the early 1990's , the highway also entered Arizona. This made then US 666 the only highway to have served all of the Four Corners states at the same time. However, it does not come near the Four Corners Monument, which is accessed via U.S. Route 160. At several points along US 491 mountain ranges in all of the Four Corners states are visible from a single location. The alignment of the highway is mostly North-South, however the Utah portion is signed East-West.

The Devil's Highway

The route was given the nickname "The Devil's Highway". This nickname and association made some people uncomfortable, as well as making the signs targets for theft. Because of the highway's number, accidents and other phenomena became repeated as legend. These legends convinced some people the highway was cursed One unnamed highway patrol officer was quoted in USA Today as stating that a drunk-driving suspect told him that, "Triple 6 is evil. Everyone dies on that highway".Skeptics point out that the highway has a lower than average fatality rate in Utah and Colorado. Only the New Mexico portion is statistically a dangerous highway. Skeptics also point that the high fatality rate in New Mexico can be explained by an inadequate design for current traffic loads.

In 1985, the U.S. Route 66 designation was eliminated, leaving U.S. 666 (and others) as orphans. This fact would be used as a supporting factor in later petitions to renumber the highway.

In 1992, the part in Arizona was renumbered as an extension of U.S. Route 191.Officials in Arizona requested this change in part because the US 666 signs were among the most frequently stolen in the state. This truncated U.S. Route 666 again at Gallup, New Mexico; now at Interstate 40.

Highway To Hell Ranked #254 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Highway to Hell" is a song by the hard rock band AC/DC. It is the opening track of the group's 1979 album Highway to Hell and the twelfth track on AC/DC Live.   Ac Dc - Highway To Hell Lyrics Living easy, livin' free Season ticket, on a one - way ride Asking nothing, leave me be Taking everything in my stride Don't need reason, don't need rhyme Ain't nothing I would rather do Going down, party time My friends are gonna be there too I'm on the highway to hell Highway to hell I'm on the highway to hell Highway to hell No stop signs, speedin' limit Nobody's gonna slow me down Like a wheel, gonna spin it Nobody's gonna mess me 'round Hey Satan! Paid my dues. Playin' in a rockin' band Hey Mama! Look at me I'm on my way to the promise land I'm on the highway to hell Highway to hell I'm on the highway to hell Highway to hell Dont stop me! Iau!Iau!yeah The song was written by Bon Scott, Angus Young and Malcolm Young while the main guitar riff was created by Malcolm Young. The track has become one of the most famous songs in rock history. AC/DC had made several studio albums before and was constantly supporting them by going on a grueling tour schedule. The song and album's title supposedly came after a reporter asked bandmembers if they could describe what life was like being constantly on tour. Angus replied that it was "a fucking highway to Hell", and the name stuck. He stated in the magazine "Guitar World" that when you are out on the road on a bus sleeping with a guy's smelly sock in your face, it's like you're on the highway to hell. Rumours persisted that the band members were satanists, and this comment, and the album cover depicting Angus with devil horns and tail only added fuel to the fire. (The band has denied having anything to do with Satanism, Malcolm having even commented that "me mum would kill me for that!"). The origin of the title of the song more likely comes from lead singer Bon Scott who came from Perth in Western Australia. Scott's local pub (The Raffles Hotel) was on Canning Highway at the bottom of a very steep hill, at an intersection which saw so many road crashes the road became known as 'the Highway to Hell'. If you listen to the lyrics it becomes very obvious that Bon was singing about going down to his local pub for a drink, and for good times with his mates - and to get there he'd travel Canning Highway, the Highway To Hell. Nevertheless, this and other songs brought AC/DC its first million-copy-selling album, and sent Highway to Hell to #17 on the charts. Scott would be found dead in the back of a friend's car just over six months later. The success of the Highway to Hell song and album set AC/DC on track to record its most famous album and tribute to Bon, Back In Black, one year later. This song was played on the 2000 film Little Nicky during a slideshow, which is seen before the credits. The song "Highway to Hell" is part of the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list. It was the title track for World Wrestling Federation's 1998 SummerSlam Pay-Per-View, which was subtitled "The Highway to Hell". Bonnie Raitt has stated that Highway To Hell is one of the greatest examples of the power of vocals and guitars ever recorded.

 

The route in the other 3 states became U.S. Route 491 in 2003, mainly through efforts of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. He requested the change due to the "infamy brought by the inopportune naming of the road". Colorado officials agreed to the change, again citing high rates of sign theft. Within days of the announcement that U.S. 666 would be renumbered, virtually every sign on the highway had been stolen, some for sale on eBay. Officials in Utah reported that 5 entire sign assemblies had been cut at the base with a chainsaw and stolen, while New Mexico officials reported that even signs welded to metal posts (to prevent thefts) had been stolen.

In New Mexico's motion to renumber the highway they selected U.S. Route 393. Since the route came nowhere near U.S. Route 93, AASHTO instead suggested U.S. Route 491, noting it as a branch of U.S. Route 191 at Monticello, Utah. Although the next 3-digit "child" of U.S. Route 91 would have been U.S. Route 291, both the 291 and 391 designations were already in use as state route numbers in at least one of the affected states U.S. Route 666 officially ceased to exist on May 31, 2003, though "New 491 - Old 666" signs were posted after the change.

The dedication of the "new" highway was postponed until July to coincide with the start of construction projects to improve safety on the highway. At the dedication, a Navajo medicine man performed a ceremony to remove the curse from the highway. However, even some people who believed in the 666 curse disagreed with the change. Multiple newspapers and television stations interviewed people along the route about their opinion on the changing of the highway's number. One went on record as stating highway officials "are messing with the wrong guy. They're making the devil mad. They should have left the 666 alone. Others were more sarcastic. One Monticello resident stated, "We'll really miss all the potheads stopping and taking pictures of the Route 666 sign."Most residents interviewed commented that no matter the number they would still call the road the Devil's Highway.

The curse of Route 666 is discussed in the book "Copper Crucible" by Jonathan D. Rosenblum. The book is about the Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983 which occurred at a copper mine along the highway near Morenci, Arizona.

The A666 is a major road in east Lancashire, England. Also known as the Bolton Road, it runs from Pendlebury near Manchester, through Bolton, Darwen and Blackburn before meeting the A59 at Langho. Along the route are the West Pennine Moors, the Turton and Entwistle reservoir and the Entwistle reservoir forest.

It is commonly known as "The Devil's Highway" or "The Devil Road" due to its 'satanic' numbering. For a short length in central Bolton it is known as "St Peters Way".

HAUNTED HIGHWAYS AND CROSSROADS

Rosedale, Mississippi, where Highway 8 intersects with Highway 1. Robert Johnson and his infamous crossroads deal with the devil – in which he traded his immortal soul for musical genius – is deeply ingrained in the mythology and legend of the rural South and is one of the best-known tales of American folklore.

In Japan, ghosts are called Yurei. They are very similar to Western ghosts, and are believed to haunt people and places after their death.

Tuen Mun Road, Hong Kong - Over the years, hundreds of people have claimed that this highway is haunted. Since 1978, many lives have been lost due to car accidents on that expressway. The high death toll is blamed on ghosts because they supposedly pop up in the middle of the road when people are driving, thus causing them to make really sharp turns to avoid them and then end up crashing. The ghosts of past victims are said to be seen there at night and some drivers have even claimed that they lost complete control of their vehicle several times.

HAUNTED HIGHWAYS, STREETS, ROADS AND GHOST LIGHTS

Road side shrines to those that have died in car accidents are see all around the world but what about the many unreported apparitions that roam them ... And a few monsters too! Suburban street ghost sightings are becoming more commonplace.

Some paranormal investigators have related different scenarios to why our highways and streets and back roads are filled with ghosts. Some believe it is that of the ghosts that have died on these paved streets. Still others think it is a spirit of someone who has decided to travel cross country to see other relatives or just seeing the world as something they could not do in life. For more Please visit here now! http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/ghosts/StreetGhost/

NEW ORLEANS TOP FIVE HAUNTED STREETS

Many locals know the best place to experience a one-on-one encounter with some of the resident ghosts and ghouls that prowl the streets of Haunted New Orleans. Haunted New Orleans Tours has created a definitive guide to some of the city’s spookiest and most ghost-ridden thoroughfares where specters make contact with the living on an almost daily basis.

#1. Canal Street at City Park Avenue.

One drive through this major city intersection and it’s obvious to see why the area ranks number one on our list of Haunted New Orleans Streets. This major intersection once marked the outermost limits of the old city of New Orleans and is a location where an amazing thirteen cemeteries converge. Beyond the intersection is the median (in New Orleans vernacular, the “neutral ground”) that once was the location of the New Basin Canal: in itself yet another graveyard for so many Irish, German and Italian immigrants died in digging it and all of them were buried where they fell.

There have been a variety of reports stemming from encounters near vortex of the dead: from spirits seen walking hand in hand down the wide avenues of Greenwood Cemetery, to the plaintive, disembodied voices that call to bus riders waiting at the corner near Odd Fellow’s Rest, the reports are astonishing. Near this location several witnesses have spotted the ghost of a young woman dressed all in white running into the path of oncoming traffic at the corner where Canal Boulevard becomes Canal Street. Some have speculated that the figure is that of a bride and they point to the fact that one of New Orleans’ legendary reception and dining halls – Lenfant’s -- stood nearby for decades. Why the bride is running or what she might be searching for will forever remain a mystery. Others who have seen her have debunked the bride theory for something more sinister: they have said she has all the appearance of a pale, ghostlike creature, with a gaunt, skeletal face and long, bony hands that make a horrible “clack-clacking” noise on the car doors of the hapless souls who wait too long at the Canal Boulevard stop sign. There have been other reports of ghostly funerals passing through the CLOSED gates of the Masonic cemetery late in the night, and this is one of the intersections where the infamous Haunted Bus is said to stop, and barrel on into the empty night. If you happen by this particular intersection remember: here the dead truly outnumber the living, and they are not restful.

#2. Esplanade Avenue at Moss Street and Bayou St. John.

This intersection, where grand old Esplanade Avenue crosses over Bayou St. John at the Moss Street Bridge has long been reputedly haunted. Along the Avenue near this intersection is St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 where many of the great old New Orleans families now sleep in eternal repose. But some of the families who chose a better view of the Bayou with their earthen beds surely must have felt betrayed when their remains were exhumed and moved: Originally, St. Louis No. 3 extended nearly all the way to the shore of the Bayou. In the 1940’s a part of the land was sold and houses were built where gravestones once stood; later, in the 1970’s, the huge Park Place apartment building was erected where the houses once stood. Reports have come of spectral beings loitering near corner of Esplanade and Moss, as if they are lost souls looking for their resting place. Also near this intersection is the old convent of the Cabrini nuns, who still teach at Cabrini High School on nearby Moss Street. Mother Cabrini, the founder of the order, lived in the building herself and tales of her spirit still being seen kneeling and praying at the grotto are legendary. In the early 1900’s Bayou St. John and the surrounding area were the domain of Jose Planas, the King of the French Market. He owned most of the land from Esplanade to the French Quarter and operated several barges and tugs that did commerce along the Bayou, once a major route to Lake Pontchartrain and ultimately to the Gulf of Mexico. Residents who live in the restored cottages near this major intersection tell stories of hearing the resonant voice of Jose himself, still giving orders to his barge crews; when Jose is seen, he appears as a man dressed in a white, Havana style suit, usually near the base of the statue of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard.

#3. St. Charles Avenue.
This grand promenade of old New Orleans has its share of reputed apparitions and haunting's.

Union soldiers and once even the ghost of General Benjamin “The Beast” Butler have been sighted on the steps of famous Gallier Hall. During the Union occupation of the city of New Orleans, Gallier Hall was used as a Federal headquarters. There is also a ghost connected to Gallier Hall that appears only during the Bacchus Mardi Gras parade: Some rattled parade-goers have run screaming to police reporting that they have just witnessed a stabbing. When police return to the scene of the alleged crime, the first block on the Lafayette St. side of Gallier Hall, there is no victim and nothing out of the ordinary is found. As it happens, in 1972, a young man was attacked and brutally stabbed between two cars on this side of Gallier Hall. He died two blocks down at the intersection of Lafayette and Baronne Streets. Perhaps what we are seeing is simply the ghostly reenactment of his tragic last minutes on earth?
On the Uptown side of St. Charles Avenue, in the area that inspired the chronicles of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, strange things are reported near the famous Bultmann Funeral Home where some have witnessed ghostly hearses idling on side streets and have heard the piercing cry of a young woman in jeopardy. Ironically, some years ago, a young woman was attacked near the funeral home entrance and was dragged to her death along a side street, all during the height of rush hour traffic.

Near the intersection of St. Charles and Napoleon Avenues a ghostly couple is said to await a bus that for them never comes. They are seen dressed in Sunday best and when the bus arrives, they apparently never get on. Also near this intersection is sometimes seen the ghost of a lost little boy. He is seen crying broken-heartedly and standing in the gutter on the river side of Napoleon. When someone approaches him, it is said he turns and runs away, disappearing into thin air. Tragically, a little boy was pulled under the wheels of a Mardi Gras float at just this location many years ago when the Super Krewe's (as they were then called) first began using the Uptown parade route. Could this spectral image be that of the lost little boy whose Mardi Gras was ruined so long ago?

#4. Lakeshore Drive
Like St. Charles Avenue, this long stretch of famous New Orleans roadway seems to have more than its share of haunting's, such as: Lakeshore Drive and Kildeer where a biker and his child were killed in a hit and run trying to cross at the base of the high rise bridge here; many people have reported being startled by the ghostly figure of a man on his bike, with a child fixed in a seat behind him, who rushes out in front of vehicles and disappears into thin air. Lakeshore Drive at “TI- KI Beach,” where the ghost of a college student who drowned during a fraternity initiation is seen walking up to cars that park here and looking mournfully into the windows before vaporizing into the dark. Lakeshore Drive at Mardi Gras Fountain, where the ghost of a motorcyclist who plowed off the road here and into the fountain in the 1960’s is said to come and sit beside hapless visitors to the old fountain; they report that he is still wearing the torn leather jacket and the blood stained helmet that he was found in. And somewhere along Lakeshore Drive is to be found one of the most troubling haunting's in New Orleans, though the exact location is unknown. It is told that during the 1930’s a man who was swimming in the Lake was sucked under the seawall steps and drowned because he could not escape. Friends searched for him and finally a diver located the opening under the steps and the body was discovered. Haunted New Orleans Tours has received several reports from people who have unintentionally chosen the exact spot of this tragedy to share a quiet moment, only to be startled into abject terror as the ghostly arm and shoulder of a man appear in the wash near the bottom of the steps: According to all reports, NO ONE has stayed around to see the head and face come up out of the water. (This one is hit or miss and you never know if the spot you’ve chosen is the right one, until you see that glowing hand reach up from the black waters of Lake Pontchartrain.)

#5. Rampart and Basin Streets.
You can’t have one without the other in this “two’fer.” Rampart Street was for years uncounted the northern boundary of the French Quarter and has been the source of many reports of haunting's and paranormal encounters. Basin Street, Rampart’s raunchy sister, is a legendary cradle of brothels and the blues, and a perfect recipe for haunting's.

The Old Mortuary Chapel, or Our Lady of Guadeloupe and St. Jude Shrine as it is called today, was once the final stop before an earthen bed for victims of the yellow fever epidemics of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The dead and dying of Bronze John’s subjects were taken en masse to this chapel to receive the Last Rites from the only souls still willing to approach the victims with compassion, the priests and nuns of the Mortuary Chapel. Today there is almost continuous activity in and around the church and novenas to St. Jude, the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes, are a constant. But in the quiet interludes, in the dark hours before dawn and at sunset after the rush hour traffic has passed, some say the sound of Latin benedictions can still be heard over the ghostly moaning of the dying in the last throes of the grip of the yellow death. One startling report comes to Haunted New Orleans Tours of a group visiting from South Carolina who decided to take an independent tour of the old chapel and somehow got a glimpse of the Other Side: while wandering the aisles of the church, amid the muffled conversation of churchgoers and other tourists, the group came face to face with a nun wearing a habit so antiquated that it immediately stood out as odd. It is said that she passed them without a look or word, and in such complete silence that it made at least one of the party give her a second, longer look. To his dismay, he realized as he watched that the nun was FLOATING almost a foot above the chapel floor. Struck speechless by the sight, all he could do was watch in shock as the nun literally floated onto the altar and through the sacristy door. Often visitors to the church smell an intense scent of lavender in the nave of the church when no one is there: lavender was used to mask the scent of illness that once so pervaded the little old chapel.

Another famous and haunted Rampart Street landmark is Congo Square. Today it is adjacent to Armstrong Park near the Municipal Auditorium, but in the 18th and 19th centuries it was the beating heart of the African Americans in New Orleans. Frequented by both Free People of color and Negro servants and slaves of the gentile New Orleans families, Congo Square quickly took on a life of its own. African Americans who came together to share and celebrate their African culture in a marketplace atmosphere that in the evenings became a celebration of music and dance held great gatherings there. Many distinguished New Orleanians would join in the celebrations at Congo Square, including Marie Laveau and her followers who practiced their voodoo rituals there deep into the night. The wild rhythms also attracted one of the most famous American composers of that time: young Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the composer of such famous works as “A Night in the Tropics” and “The Banjo,” visited Congo Square as a child and into his youth – and some say he still visits there in death. Reports have come to Haunted New Orleans Tours of a tall man, dressed in 19th century clothing, groomed in the style of the day with sideburns and moustache, who walks silently down Rampart Street to the gates of Armstrong Park and disappears inside. One report tells of the man being accompanied by an Octoroon woman dressed in servant’s clothes of the time: it is a well known fact that the servants of Gottschalk’s household are the ones who first exposed him to the fiery rhythms that would plant the seed of ragtime in his musician’s heart. Perhaps his Octoroon is still accompanying him? Those who have researched the story of Gottschalk have recognized his tall, dark figure immediately, but he is not confined to Rampart Street and is often seen near the corner of Royal and Esplanade standing outside the cottage where he was born. The ghost of Marie Laveau has also been seen in the park itself, dancing in a ghostly dance to music only she and the spirits of the Other World now can hear. Dressed in white and looking as beautiful as when she lived, her dark eyes flash as if she knows very well she is dead and that she is scaring the life out of you!

Nearby Basin Street has always had a seedy reputation and the brothels that flourished there in the late 1800’s and early 20th century did nothing to change that opinion. But can it be that the ghosts of prostitutes from long ago are still working their Basin Street beat? One man claims that he was actually approached by one of these ghostly prostitutes and was led to a rendezvous in a darkened yard, only to find himself completely alone: the woman had vanished altogether. Ghostly music haunts Basin Street; remnant notes from days of yore when jazz and the blues were in their infancy. One complaint to the New Orleans Police Department about “the jazz band practicing upstairs in that empty building” seem to be proof enough that ghostly musicians still get together to jam: when the NOPD arrived, they found the place deserted, without even electricity or a way inside. One familiar Basin Street ghost is that of famous turn of the century craftsman and painter Alphonse Aveton, who is still seen in his turn of the century painter’s clothes, walking down Basin or climbing scaffolding that IS NOT THERE along the sides of buildings now decrepit and abandoned but which once bore the mark of his artistry. Family members of Aveton claim to have no idea why their relative is still plying his trade in the hereafter but wish wholeheartedly that he’d come over to their houses and do some work for them! Such is the way with most old New Orleans families: you may be gone but you are never forgotten!