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presents

The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

CR 38

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Highway	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
CR 38 (current alignment)	Old Stoney Gap Rd.	CR 25, US 19 & 460 near Mercer Mall	CR 19/33 east of Mercer Mall	insignificant
CR 38 (original alignment)	Old Stoney Gap Rd., Jug Neck Rd.	CR 25 near what is now Mercer Mall	US 219 (now CR 460/6), Oakvale	13

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Overview

County Route 38 is a short, narrow road directly facing the Mercer Mall entrance in southern Mercer County. At scarcely half a kilometre long in its current configuration, it's of minimal significance except to the few people who live on it.

CR 38 happens to have the highest sequential number of any secondary highway in Mercer County. Although some higher numbers exist, they are all anomalies.

History

CR 38 was commissioned in 1933, and routed upon pre-existing infrastructure from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Although a fair number of highways in Mercer County have been pared down from their original lengths, none have been truncated more dramatically than CR 38. In its original configuration, CR 38 stretched from Stony Gap clear east to Oakvale...a length over 20 times what it spans today.

In an ironic way, the strategic importance of this road ended up being its undoing. Since it was the most direct link from Bluefield to Giles County, Virginia and other points to the east, CR 38 became targeted for improvements...and replacement by a primary highway. In about 1945, CR 38 gave way to WV 12.

Although WV 12 generally followed the same course as CR 38, some portions of the older road were bypassed to eliminate steep grades and railway crossings:

• An entire 8-kilometre segment of road between Ada and Ingleside was replaced by new construction. The old road became CR 38/5.
• A 500-metre section through Ada was replaced, leaving behind a stub that was integrated into CR 38/1.
• West of Ada, the original uphill approach to US 19 and 21 was abandoned and replaced by a level approach slightly further south.

When the cutting was done, all that was left of CR 38 was the 550-metre stub that still survives today.

In the 1990s, the west end of the road was posted "ROAD CLOSED TO THRU TRAFFIC" in a ham-fisted attempt to prevent incidents. This road had a very prominent access point directly across from the Mercer Mall Road, with a two-lane approach and no warning that it would suddenly devolve into a one-lane hair-raiser with hairpin turns...meaning that it was practically guaranteed that the drivers of transport trucks would turn onto the road and either jackknife or bottom out before their drivers realized their error. The sign was later removed, suggesting that it may have been posted without proper authority.

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It's rare for USGS topographic maps to include West Virginia county road designations...yet CR 38 was included in the 1944 photorevision of the Bluefield quadrangle. Their cartographers were confused over where to put the road, though...and they ended up drawing it squarely over the crest of Stony Ridge, then ending it at a point in the middle of nowhere. Oops? (USGS, 1926/44.)

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Fractional spur roads

The once-lengthy extent of CR 38 is alluded to in its surviving spur roads, which extend nearly as far east as the road itself once did.

Road	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)	Notes
38/1	Ada Rd.	WV 112 (former CR 38), Ada	US 52 south of Ada	4	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from west to east. South end currently includes a former segment of CR 29.
38/2	Shasta Rd.	Dead end (originally former CR 38 west of Blake)	CR 290/1 (former CR 29)	insignificant	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from west to east. Mostly obliterated by I-77 construction, late 1960s.
38/3	Peggy Branch Rd.	WV 112 (former CR 38), Hardy	dead end	3	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from west to east.
38/4	Harmon Branch Rd., Greasy Ridge Rd.	WV 112 (former CR 38) east of Hardy	CR 460/1 (former US 219 & 460)	5	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from west to east. Centre section impassable.
38/5	Blake Hollow Rd.	WV 112 east of Ada	WV 112, Ingleside	8	Added by 1945. Former alignment of CR 38, bypassed by WV 12 (later 112). Impassable.
38/6	(unknown name)	CR 38/3 south of Hardy	dead end	insignificant

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