Haunted Highways in the West: The Legends of Route 666

Some roads acquire reputations because they are dangerous.

Others become infamous because of what travelers claim to encounter upon them.

For decades, one highway through the American Southwest managed to become both.

It was officially designated U.S. Route 666, but inevitably acquired another name:

The Devil’s Highway.

The number was never intended as anything sinister. It resulted from the ordinary system used to number American highways. Nevertheless, once motorists began associating 666 with the biblical Number of the Beast, an otherwise unremarkable highway designation became irresistible material for folklore.

Then came the accidents.

And the stories.

Drivers reported phantom vehicles pursuing them through the darkness. Others described packs of unnatural dogs running alongside cars at impossible speeds. Strange figures appeared beside the highway.

Eventually the government changed the number.

But changing a sign is considerably easier than changing a legend.

How Route 666 Got Its Name

Despite later stories, Route 666 was not deliberately given a satanic designation.

The number originated with the creation of the United States Highway System during the 1920s.

Three-digit routes were generally numbered as branches of principal highways. When the famous U.S. Route 66 received its designation, one of its branches became U.S. 666 because it was the sixth branch associated with Route 66.

Nothing occult was intended.

It was highway bureaucracy.

But bureaucracy had accidentally created one of the finest road names in American folklore.

The original Route 666 ran between Gallup, New Mexico, and Cortez, Colorado. It was subsequently extended, eventually reaching through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah at its greatest extent. The Arizona portion was removed from the designation in 1992, leaving the remaining highway running from Gallup through Colorado to Monticello, Utah.

The Devil’s Highway

The significance of 666 comes from the Book of Revelation, where it is identified as the Number of the Beast.

That association proved impossible for the highway to escape.

Motorists stole the signs.

Residents complained about the designation.

Some travelers reportedly avoided the road altogether.

And the highway developed an unusually ominous reputation because portions of it were genuinely dangerous. By the late twentieth century, the New Mexico section in particular had attracted concern over its accident and fatality rates.

The ingredients for a legend were already assembled.

A lonely highway.

Long stretches through sparsely populated country.

Serious accidents.

And the number 666 displayed beside the road.

It wasn’t long before people began reporting things that couldn’t be found on any highway map.

The Black Semi

One of the most enduring legends associated with Route 666 concerns an enormous black tractor-trailer.

According to the stories, the encounter often begins after a motorist experiences trouble.

A tire goes flat.

The engine overheats.

The driver pulls onto the shoulder.

Then headlights appear.

A large black semi approaches at tremendous speed.

There isn’t enough time to escape.

The truck seems certain to strike the stranded vehicle.

And then it disappears.

Other versions are considerably more aggressive. Drivers claim the phantom truck appears behind moving vehicles, bearing down upon them as though deliberately attempting to force them from the highway.

Some accounts even claim vehicles have been struck or sideswiped.

But when frightened motorists look for the truck afterward, there is nothing there.

The original article preserved this legend as the “Evil Semi,” one of several supernatural hazards motorists supposedly encountered on the old highway.

There is no evidence establishing the existence of a phantom truck.

But the story fits comfortably within a much older family of highway legends.

Something appears behind you.

It follows.

It gets closer.

And when it should finally overtake you, there is suddenly nothing in the mirror.

The Devil’s Limo

Another variation replaces the semi with a sleek black automobile.

Sometimes described as a sedan and sometimes as a limousine, the vehicle reportedly appears after nightfall.

A lone driver notices headlights in the rearview mirror.

At first they are distant.

Then they become closer.

The driver accelerates.

So does the other car.

Pulling aside doesn’t necessarily help. According to some versions, the black vehicle rushes past at extraordinary speed.

The frightened driver expects to see it disappearing down the highway ahead.

Instead, the road is empty.

The original account described travelers experiencing intense uneasiness around sunset before the mysterious headlights appeared behind them.

Perhaps exhaustion, darkness and distance can explain such experiences.

Anyone who has driven a lonely highway at night knows how deceptive headlights can become.

A vehicle disappears behind a rise.

A distant light seems suddenly close.

Reflections appear where nothing should be.

But knowing that doesn’t necessarily make the experience pleasant when there is nobody else on the road.

The Hellhounds of Route 666

The strangest legends involve dogs.

Motorists have described encountering packs of large, vicious animals running alongside their vehicles.

That alone would be disturbing.

The animals supposedly do something ordinary dogs cannot.

They keep up.

Even as the vehicle accelerates, the dogs remain beside it.

Some versions claim the animals attack tires. Others describe them attempting to leap toward open windows or into vehicles.

Eventually they disappear into the darkness.

The legend became so elaborate that the phantom dogs were blamed for accidents and even deaths along the highway.

As with the black vehicles, documentation becomes difficult once we move beyond folklore.

But supernatural dogs are hardly unique to Route 666.

Black Dogs on Lonely Roads

Stories of spectral dogs are centuries old.

British folklore is particularly rich in tales of enormous black dogs appearing along roads, near churches and at isolated crossroads.

Some were considered omens of death.

Others attacked travelers.

Still others merely appeared and vanished.

The American Southwest has its own traditions involving dangerous supernatural beings capable of assuming animal forms, although those traditions should not simply be folded into European black-dog folklore.

Route 666 became a natural place for these traditions to accumulate.

Once a highway has been christened the Devil’s Highway, a large black dog encountered beside it at midnight is unlikely to remain merely a large black dog for very long.

Strange Figures Along the Highway

Other stories associated with the old road describe people standing where no person should reasonably be.

A figure appears beside the highway.

Sometimes the motorist passes without stopping.

Sometimes the person seems to disappear.

In other variations, the traveler believes someone has appeared inside or immediately beside the vehicle.

These stories overlap with another enormous category of American folklore: the phantom hitchhiker.

The details change from road to road.

A young woman needs a ride home.

A traveler picks her up.

She provides an address.

Before reaching the destination, she disappears.

When the driver reaches the house, someone explains that the girl died years earlier.

Route 666 didn’t invent such stories.

Its reputation simply provided them with particularly fertile ground.

A Dangerous Road

There is an important reality underneath the supernatural reputation.

The highway really did have safety problems.

The Federal Highway Administration’s history of Route 666 notes concerns surrounding the dangerous condition of portions of the highway. By 1997, U.S. 666 had been identified as one of the country’s more dangerous highways, and Navajo leaders had pushed for improvements.

This matters when considering the legend.

If people repeatedly hear about serious accidents along a highway already associated with the Number of the Beast, coincidence begins looking meaningful.

Another fatal accident occurs.

The highway is cursed.

A driver falls asleep.

Something forced him from the road.

Someone swerves to avoid an animal.

It was one of the hellhounds.

Folklore can grow around genuine danger without causing it.

But genuine danger makes the folklore considerably easier to believe.

Why Was Route 666 Renamed?

By the beginning of the twenty-first century, officials had several reasons for wanting the number changed.

The satanic association caused complaints and discouraged some travelers. Highway signs were frequently stolen. Officials also hoped a new designation could accompany broader efforts to improve the road and its reputation.

In 2003, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah sought a new number.

They initially proposed U.S. 393, but highway-numbering conventions made that unsuitable.

The eventual choice was U.S. Route 491.

On May 31, 2003, the change became official.

After seventy-seven years, U.S. Route 666 ceased to exist.

Officially.

Stealing the Devil’s Signs

There was one final problem.

Everyone wanted a souvenir.

Route 666 signs had already been frequent targets for thieves, but when the renumbering was announced, theft became rampant.

Signs disappeared almost immediately.

Some thieves apparently went to extraordinary lengths. Utah officials reported entire sign assemblies being cut down, while signs elsewhere had been welded to posts in attempts to prevent their removal.

There is something wonderfully American about the conclusion.

Officials finally eliminated the Devil’s Highway.

And people promptly stole the Devil.

Blessing the New Highway

The renumbering wasn’t treated merely as an administrative change.

When the new highway was dedicated in July 2003, Navajo medicine man George Blue Horse performed a ceremony associated with the transition to the new road designation.

The highway was becoming 491.

The old number was being left behind.

But even some residents who believed the old road carried an unfortunate reputation weren’t convinced changing the number would change whatever happened upon it.

And others simply refused to stop calling it Route 666.

Legends rarely cooperate with highway departments.

Did the Hauntings Stop?

There is no compelling evidence that Route 666 possessed an unusual concentration of supernatural activity in the first place.

Its name undoubtedly influenced its reputation.

The landscape contributed.

So did genuine traffic fatalities.

Stories borrowed elements from older highway folklore, ghost stories and regional traditions.

Yet reducing the entire legend to the number on a sign may be too easy.

People have always reported strange experiences while traveling isolated roads.

Fatigue can produce unusual perceptions.

Heat can distort distant objects.

Headlights behave strangely across uneven terrain.

Animals can appear unexpectedly.

Long periods of monotonous driving can alter attention and perception.

All of these provide reasonable explanations.

But they don’t necessarily tell us what happened during every individual encounter.

A driver who genuinely believes something enormous ran beside his car for several miles will probably remember that experience long after someone explains that he was tired.

The Highway That Changed Its Name

Today, U.S. 491 runs approximately 194 miles from Gallup, New Mexico, through southwestern Colorado and into Monticello, Utah.

The number 666 is gone from the signs.

Safety improvements have also changed the highway itself, and fatality rates subsequently declined.

But the old name survives.

Search for the Devil’s Highway and the black semi still comes roaring out of the darkness.

The dogs still chase automobiles.

The black sedan still appears in the mirror.

Perhaps none of them ever existed anywhere except in stories.

Perhaps the highway’s ominous number simply gave ordinary nighttime experiences a supernatural interpretation.

But there is something wonderfully stubborn about road folklore.

Governments can straighten dangerous curves.

They can widen highways.

They can replace signs.

They can even change 666 to 491.

What they cannot do is prevent someone driving alone through the desert at two in the morning from glancing into the rearview mirror…

and wondering why those headlights are getting closer.