Portal:U.S. roads/Selected article/December 2008

Old and new route number at the intersection with US 191 in Monticello

U.S. Route 491 (US 491) is a north–south U.S. Highway serving the Four Corners region of the United States. One of the newest designations in the U.S. Highway system, it was created in 2003 as a renumbering of US  666'. With the 666 designation, this road was nicknamed "Devil's Highway" because of the common Christian belief that 666 is the Number of the Beast. This satanic connotation, combined with a high fatality rate along the New Mexico portion, convinced some people the highway was cursed. The problem was compounded with chronic sign theft. These factors led to two efforts to renumber the highway, first by officials in Arizona, later in New Mexico. Since the renumbering, in conjunction with safety improvement projects, fatality rates have decreased.

The highway runs through Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, as well as the tribal nations of the Navajo Nation and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Features along the route include an extinct volcanic core named Shiprock, Mesa Verde National Park, and the self-proclaimed "pinto bean capital of the world". The route serves the states of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Before 1992, the highway also served Arizona. The Arizona portion was renumbered separately and is now part of US 191. The former US 666 was the only highway to have served all of the Four Corners states at the same time, even though it never came near the Four Corners Monument, accessed via US 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.

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