State Road 39 (SR 39) in the

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Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

is the name of two distinct north–south highways.

Route description

Southern section

Located in south-central Indiana, the shorter southern section of SR 39 begins at SR 56 west of Scottsburg. It runs north and passes through Little York, then ends at an intersection with SR 250 just before reaching Brownstown.

Northern section

The much longer northern section starts at

I-69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of eight unconnected segments. The longest segment runs from Evansville, Indiana, northeast to the Canada–United States border, Canadian border in Po ...

in Martinsville, southwest of

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, and runs north to the

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

border near I-94 (via M-239). Along the route, it passes through these towns (from south to north): * Martinsville (Southern Terminus, Intersects

in Southern Martinsville and SR 67 in Northern Martinsville (Goes under a concurrency with SR 67) *

Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...

(intersects SR 42) * Danville (intersects US 36) * Lizton (interchange with

I-74 Interstate 74 (I-74) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Its western end is at an interchange with I-80 in Davenport, Iowa; the eastern end of its Midwest segment is at an interchange with I-75 ...

) *

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

(interchange with I-65 exit 139) * Frankfort (start of US 421 concurrency) * Rossville (concurrent with US 421) *

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...

(concurrent with US 421) *

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

(end of US 421 concurrency) * Buffalo (concurrency with SR 16) * North Judson (concurrency with SR 10) * LaPorte (concurrency with US 35 and SR 2) * Springville (intersects US 20)

History

Northern section

In the 1960s, SR 39 was the connector between the west end of I-94 (which ended just north of the Michigan-Indiana border) and the

Indiana Toll Road The Indiana Toll Road, officially the Indiana East–West Toll Road, is a controlled-access toll road that runs for east–west across northern Indiana from the Illinois state line to the Ohio state line. It has been advertised as the "Main ...

. Hence, a dozen miles of this winding 2-lane road carried all the heavy traffic between Chicago and Detroit. In 2010, the section of SR 39 between Monrovia and Belleville was greatly improved and re-paved.

Southern section

At one point, SR 39 had a section from US 31 in Henryville to SR 3 in Charlestown. It was later decommissioned when SR 160 was extended to end in Charlestown.

Major intersections

References

External links