Highway 115 (AR 115, Ark. 115, and Hwy. 115) is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

Northeast Arkansas The geography of Arkansas varies widely. The state is covered by mountains, river valleys, forests, lakes, and bayous in addition to the cities of Arkansas. Hot Springs National Park features bubbling springs of hot water, formerly sought across ...

. The route begins at US Highway 167 and Highway 58 in Cave City and runs northeast to

Missouri Route 21 Route 21 is a highway in eastern Missouri. Its northern terminus is at Route 30 in Affton. Its southern terminus is at the Arkansas-Missouri state line (where it continues as Highway 115). In the St. Louis area, it is known as Tesson Ferry Ro ...

near

Doniphan, Missouri Doniphan is a city and the county seat of Ripley County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,781 at the 2020 census. History The first settlement at Doniphan was made in the 1840s. The community was named for Alexander William Doniph ...

, including a

concurrency Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

with US 62/ US 412 between Imboden and

Pocahontas Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe; 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. S ...

. The highway is maintained by the

Arkansas Department of Transportation The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT), formerly the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, is a government department in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its mission is to provide a safe, efficient, aesthetically pleasing and env ...

(ARDOT). One of the original 1926 Arkansas state highways, modern-day Highway 115 was established as State Road 79 between Cave City and Missouri, largely along its modern alignment. The alignment was rerouted between Imboden to Smithville in 1928, and an overlap was created between Pocahontas and Imboden when US 62 was designated across the state in 1931. It was renumbered to Highway 115 to avoid duplication with US 79 in 1935.

Route description

Highway 115 begins at

US 167 U.S. Route 167 is a north-south United States Highway within the U.S. states of Louisiana and Arkansas. It runs for from Ash Flat, Arkansas at U.S. Route 62/ U.S. Route 412 to Abbeville, Louisiana at Louisiana Highway 14. It goes through th ...

/ AR 58 (Main Street) in the small town of Cave City. The highway runs eastward in a concurrency with Highway 58 through the sparsely populated forest and pastures of the Central Plateau subregion of the

Ozark Highlands The Ozark Highlands is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in four U.S. states. Most of the region is within Missouri, with a part in Arkansas and small sections in Oklahoma and Kansas. It is the largest ...

. Highway 58 turns left, ending the concurrency at the

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

of Emery, with Highway 115 continuing east through rural areas and unincorporated communities

Ben-Gay Bengay, spelled Ben-Gay before 1995, is a topical analgesic heat rub for temporary relief from muscle and joint pain associated with arthritis, bruises, simple backaches, overuse, sprains and strains. Overview Bengay was developed in France by D ...

and

Calamine Calamine, also known as calamine lotion, is a medication made from powdered calamine (mineral), calamine mineral that is used to treat mild itchiness. Conditions treated include sunburn, insect bites, Toxicodendron radicans, poison ivy, poiso ...

to enter Lawrence County. Entering the western side of the county, Highway 115 has an intersection with Highway 117 north of Jessup. The two routes form an overlap northward, crossing the Strawberry River and entering the small town of Smithville. The two routes turn eastward, passing the

Smithville Public School Building The Smithville Public School Building is a historic school building on Arkansas Highway 117 in the small community of Smithville, Arkansas. It is a single-story T-shaped fieldstone structure with a cross-gable roof. History It was built in 1 ...

, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Highway 115 turns left in Smithville, ending the overlap and heading northward toward Imboden, passing a rural area populated with homes and small farms. Upon entering Imboden, Highway 115 curves northward around the Sloan-Hendrix School District campus and Imboden City Park before an intersection with

US 62 U.S. Route 62 or U.S. Highway 62 (US 62) is an east–west United States Highway in the southern and northeastern United States. It runs from the Mexican border at El Paso, Texas, to Niagara Falls, New York, near the Canadian bo ...

US 63 U.S. Route 63 (US 63) is a , north–south United States Highway primarily in the Midwestern and Southern United States. The southern terminus of the route is at Interstate 20 (I-20) in Ruston, Louisiana; the northern terminus is at US&nbs ...

US 412 U.S. Route 412 is an east–west United States highway, first commissioned in 1982. U.S. 412 overlaps expressway-grade Cimarron Turnpike from Tulsa west to Interstate 35 and the Cherokee Turnpike from east of Chouteau, Oklahoma, to west of th ...

. Highway 115 overlaps with US 62 eastward to Pocahontas. In Pocahontas, Highway 115 turns left from US 62 to follow Highway 90 through downtown. Highway 115 splits from Highway 90 as Mansker Drive and runs north of the city to an intersection with Highway 251. It continues northeast as a rural highway, passing the NRHP-listed Cedar Grove School No. 81 and forming a concurrency with Highway 166 at Stokes before entering the small town of Maynard. A junction with Highway 328 in Maynard also ends the Highway 166 concurrency. Highway 115 continues north through a rural area, passing the unincorporated community of Middlebrook before crossing the Missouri state line, where it continues as

. The ARDOT maintains Highway 115 like all other parts of the state highway system. As a part of these responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic using its roads in surveys using a metric called average annual daily traffic (AADT). ARDOT estimates the traffic level for a segment of roadway for any average day of the year in these surveys. As of 2018, the peak AADT on the highway was 5,000 vehicles per day (VPD) near Pocahontas, dropping to 800 VPD near the Missouri border. The AADT was under 2000 between Cave City and Imboden. No segment of Highway 115 has been listed as part of the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility.

History

During the

1926 Arkansas state highway numbering In 1926, the U.S. state of Arkansas renumbered its highways into a more traditional format. The system to be replaced was established in 1924 as Arkansas' first comprehensive highway plan.McLaren, Christie. "Arkansas Highway History and Archite ...

, a route similar to the present alignment of Highway 115 was created between Cave City and Missouri as State Road 79. By September 1928, State Road 79 was rerouted between Imboden and Smithville along a more direct route, with the former alignment becoming Highway 117. When US 62 was designated across Arkansas in 1931, it replaced State Road 79 between Imboden and Pocahontas. When US 79 was designated across Arkansas in 1935, the State Road 79 designation was changed to State Road 115 to avoid duplication. State Road 115, which had been an original state highway between

El Dorado El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...

and Thornton in

South Arkansas South Arkansas lies within the southernmost portions of Arkansas Gulf Coastal Plain and Delta regions. It encompasses the lower 15 counties of the state. History In the 1920s, nationwide attention focused on South Arkansas when the Smackover Fi ...

, was supplanted by US 167, which had been relocated as part of the US 79 designation.

Major intersections

Notes

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, Arkansas Highway 115

115 115 may refer to: *115 (number), the number *AD 115, a year in the 2nd century AD *115 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *115 (Hampshire Fortress) Corps Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, a unit in the UK Territorial Army *115 (Leicestershire) Field ...