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I need to pin down my exact source for this, but according to Kentucky law, every U.S. route in Kentucky is also the Kentucky state route of the same number. Following that, you should theoretically never find a state route and a U.S. route in Kentucky with the same number. But with this one exception, it must be assumed that the part that is designated as U.S. Highway 79 is also State Route 79, so the whole thing from Guthrie to Brandenburg is State Route 79, even if there is a small gap in Russellville. An old map I have shows much of S.R. 79 labelled as S.R. 105 instead, so it seems that it must have been changed to 79 later, which does seem to suggest an intent of continuity in the route number. weetbixkid (talk) 08:05, 21 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'll bite at this since this seems like an interesting case. If what you described is accurate, Kentucky is similar to California - California defines all of its routes as "Route #" regardless of what system they're in. As a result, I-210 and SR 210 comprise the legal "Route 210" even though they're two distinct routes, which could be the case here as well. Who knows, maybe KYTC has KY 79 beginning where US 79 ends for a true continuity of the number. It's been a while since I've looked at the KY route logs, so I don't know. That said, legalese aside, they're two distinct routes and should be kept separate, with the exception of a mention of each in the two articles at most. Anything beyond that, IMO, is overkill.
As for the history of KY 79...I have a few old maps of KY as well, and I'll leave some notes on KY 79's talk page in case you or another editor is interested in expanding its article. – TMF08:38, 21 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]