ORoads: Oregon Route 19

"Over the John Day Highway from its junction with the Columbia River Highway, I-84 and US30, in Arlington, southeasterly via Condon (common with OR206 in Condon), Fossil, Service Creek (common with OR207 from Service Creek to a point three miles east of Spray), Spray, and Kimberly to its junction with the Ochoco Highway, US26, at Rock Creek Junction approximately seven miles northwest of Dayville."

~ ODOT, Descriptions of US and Oregon Routes, March 2007

OR-19 was designated at the inception of the Oregon state route numbering system in 1932, signed along a 125 mile portion of the John Day Highway #5. Since 1932, only a few changes and reroutings have occurred along the route; for example, OR-19 used to end at US-28 in Picture Gorge Junction; now it ends at US-26 in Picture Gorge Junction. Also, in 1935, OR-207 was cosigned with OR-19 from Service Creek to Poplar with the creation of the secondary state route system. OR-206 is cosigned slightly in Condon, but I am unaware of when this occurred. As I do not have a comprehensive system of road maps in front of me, I am unable to completely retrace most old alignments. Any help in this matter would be extremely helpful. Contact me if you know of some old OR-19 alignments.

This potential former alignment, shown in green, is located just north of the town of Condon, where OR-206 duplexes with OR-19 for a short time. The former alignment begins at the corner of Main St. and Walnut, where OR-19 and OR-206 meet in downtown Condon. The current alignment has OR-19 taking a right on Walnut St. before heading out of town, the former alignment continues north on Main St. out of town, where it becomes Old Condon Rd. At Old Hay Rd., it veers right and becomes Brown Rd., which crosses the current alignment of OR-19. I think old OR-19 would then take a left on Jaeger Rd. and meet up with moder OR-19 north of town. I do not immediately know when this section was bypassed or if it was OR-19 to begin with; however, because of the "Old Condon Rd." street name, I believe it is.

This potential former alignment, shown in purple, is a short road just north of Dick Creek Ln. about 7 miles north of OR-19's southern terminus. This is officially labelled as a part of the John Day Highway, although the ODOT Highway Inventory reports make no such mention of this road. They do, however, make mention of a road to an ODOT stockpile site in the vicinity of the alleged alignment, so it could theoretically serve an official ODOT purpose, which is why it may still be a part of the John Day Highway.