# So what was the deal with Highway US 666?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 4, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608 "2003-06-04T14:48:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/1 "2003-06-04T14:48:51Z")
I heard a news blurb that the name was being changed. Was there that much concern over the number? Why now?
Anyway, there is some evidence that the Anti-Christ might be Kim Jong Il, who is far removed from New Mexico:
> **[Southeast Asia's Airlines Are Pretty Much No More Dangerous Than American Ones](https://time.com/3696131/asia-airlines-safety-records/)**
>
> There's a .0001% difference between their safety records
---
### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/2 "2003-06-04T15:07:38Z")
[http://boston.com/news/daily/03/odds\_666.htm](http://boston.com/news/daily/03/odds_666.htm)
People have an irrational dislike of the number, that’s all. It’s no different that wanting to give the Rat Vomit Expressway some other name.
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/3 "2003-06-04T15:18:40Z")
And from a practical standpoint, since the first digit indiciates a branch or offshoot of the main highway, there’s not much point in having a U.S. Highway 666 when there hasn’t been a U.S. 66 for more than 30 years.
---
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/4 "2003-06-04T15:22:41Z")
According to some, Rte 666 had an inordinantly high number of accidents occur on it. Clear proof, if you’re inclined to see it that way, that Satan rules the road (which would’ve been a great title for a drive-in movie). On the other hand, some people have observed that Rte 666 is the shortest route between a populous Indian reservation where alcohol sales are banned and the closest town with bars, so the accident rate might be accountable for by more traditional means.
---
### Author:  [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/5 "2003-06-04T16:26:25Z")
I had a great post here and the hamsters ate it.
The gist of it was, US 666’s renumbering has nothing to do with Satan, and everything (well, a lot anyway) to do with stolen signs. I wonder how many mediocre rock bands were stealing the “US 666” signs.
[This roadgeek article](http://www.mesalek.com/colo/us666change.html) claims (some years before the change) that
> [@](#):
>
> CDOT polled southwestern Colorado residents and governments in 1999 about changing the name, and the only officials to respond, from Dove Creek and Dolores County, didn’t have an opinion on renumbering it. In Colorado, officials say the accident rate is similar to other highways in the state, but they wouldn’t mind changing the number so they don’t have to keep replacing stolen signs.
---
### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/6 "2003-06-04T16:36:19Z")
I hope that it is at least paved with good intentions.
---
### Author:  [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/7 "2003-06-04T17:03:34Z")
Here is a link to a story about the name change in the (Salt Lake) [Deseret News](http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,505037575,00.html?).
> [@](#):
>
> Dean Collard, a Port of Entry agent in southeastern Utah, has seen people traveling on the road headed east out of town suddenly gasp as they glanced at something and then quickly turn their vehicles around and redirect to another route.
> “A few drivers,” he said, “were too spooked to drive on it.”
> You would’ve thought they’d seen a ghost on the side of the road. Or maybe the creepy old lady who some claim they’ve seen wandering along desolate parts of this highway at night. Or perhaps a skinwalker, one of those powerful, shape-shifting spirits that Navajo legend claims have been cursed and roam the area. Or none of the above.
> What they saw, Collard says, was the road sign that made them wonder if they were on the Highway to H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks, Purgatory Pathway or Lucifer’s Lane. That’s because here the official U.S. government-issued signs by mere coincidence display a road name that the Bible claims to be the “Number of the Beast” — 666.
> This supposedly satanic strip stretches through 190 miles in three states — basically going east-west from Monticello to Cortez, Colo., and then north-south to Gallup, N.M. It’s been infamously known as “The Devil’s Highway.” Until now.
> U.S. 666 is losing its unintentional alliance with the Archfiend. The Utah Department of Transportation joined forces with New Mexico and Colorado to persuade the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to exorcise Satan’s serial number from their streets.
I didn’t quote the whole article. It has interviews with local residents, etc.
---
### Author:  [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/8 "2003-06-04T18:13:47Z")
kinda off-subject, but who is Kim Jong II?
---
### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/9 "2003-06-04T18:28:53Z")
Leader of North Korea
---
### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/10 "2003-06-04T18:39:49Z")
The name is Kim Jong **IL**. eye, ell
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/11 "2003-06-04T21:02:31Z")
the “sign” bit reminds me of Devon, PA, which had a plague of spray-paintings in the highway signs for it (they painted over the “n”, dubbing the town “Devo”.) Last I heard, they just had a replacable “n” rather than clean it or replace the sign.
---
### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2003, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/12 "2003-06-04T22:36:10Z")
There’s a State Route 666 (I believe it’s a state route, anyway) near my hometown of Zanesville, OH. People generally just refer to it as “Three Sixes”, as in, “Oh, you’re going to Adamsville? Take Three Sixes on out there, it’s quickest.”
They had a hell of a time with teenagers stealing the road signs, though.
---
### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/13 "2003-06-05T01:20:03Z")
We still have a Route 66 in Oklahoma, but It’s marked as historical. And it is only a small part of the original route. So I guess it doesn’t count as a real highway designation. The real name (on the maps) is different.
Would Route 666 be the Highway to Hell?
---
### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/14 "2003-06-05T01:35:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \*
> \*\*I hope that it is at least paved with good intentions. \*\*
LOL!
**Terminus Est** , you are a comic genius! (And you have my permission to use that as your sig line.)
---
### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/15 "2003-06-05T01:35:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \*
> Would Route 666 be the Highway to Hell?
Too bad we don’t have Michael Landon around anymore to change it.
😃
---
### Author:  [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-the-deal-with-highway-us-666/179608/16 "2003-06-05T01:57:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Terminus Est \*
> \*\*I hope that it is at least paved with good intentions. \*\*
that was pretty funny.