State Route 266 (SR 266) 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 ...
in
Esmeralda County,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
, United States. It connects the routing of
California State Route 266
State Route 266 (SR 266) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. The route traverses Fish Lake Valley, which is part in California and part in Nevada. The route connects two Nevada state routes that traverse the Nevada ...
east to
U.S. Route 95
U.S. Route 95 (US 95) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Highway in the western United States. It travels through the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho, staying inland ...
(US 95) via the town of
Lida
Lida is a city in Grodno Region, western Belarus, located west of Minsk. It serves as the administrative center of Lida District. As of 2025, it has a population of 103,262.
Etymology
The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuanian name ''Ly ...
. Lida Road previously carried the southern end of
State Route 3
The following highways are numbered 3, H-3, PRI-3, AH3, E03 and R3. For roads numbered A3, see A3 roads. For roads numbered M3, see M3 (disambiguation)#Roads, M3. For roads numbered N3, see N3 (disambiguation)#Roads, N3. For roads numbered 3A, see ...
.
Route description
State Route 266 begins at the
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
state line about east of
Oasis, California. From there, the highway makes its way east through the mountainous terrain and the Lida Summit (elevation ) to the community of Lida.
Once it exits the town, the route continues east through the open desert. SR 266 reaches its eastern terminus at the Lida Junction, an intersection with US 95 south of
Goldfield. On the south side of the highway is the
Lida Junction Airport—which was originally built to provide more convenient access to the now defunct
Cottontail Ranch, located immediately southwest of the highway junction.
History
SR 266 originally began as the southernmost segment of State Route 3, one of Nevada's first four state highways designated with the creation of the
Nevada Department of Highways
The Nevada Department of Transportation (Nevada DOT or NDOT) is a government agency in the U.S. state of Nevada. NDOT is responsible for maintaining and improving Nevada's highway system, which includes U.S. highways and Interstate highways wit ...
in 1917.
Maps dating back to 1917 show SR 3 curving northward a few miles east of Lida on its trek towards Goldfield and points further north.
The eastern portion of the present-day route was constructed as a graded highway by 1937,
with the new alignment replacing the unimproved northeast leg by 1940.
The entire alignment was paved by 1960.
SR 3 was officially eliminated from the state highway system as part of a mass renumbering of Nevada's state routes. State Route 266 was assigned to this former alignment of SR 3 on July 1, 1976.
The resulting change in the highway's number was first seen on the 1978–79 edition of the official highway map.
Major intersections
See also
*
*
References
{{Commons category, Nevada State Route 266
266
__NOTOC__
Year 266 ( CCLXVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gallienus and Sabinillus (or, less frequently, year 1019 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...
Transportation in Esmeralda County, Nevada