Road Addresses

[W. Gray]

This question is for people living out in Elk County or any other county where townships and sections rule property descriptions. Farmhouses on Junebug, Limestone, Turkey, and other roads now have street or road addresses.

How was your road address determined?

Within the city limits, lots are used as basis for addresses. What is the basis "out there?"

[Janet Harrington]

Waldo,

I can certainly address this issue because I was one of the several who made the decisions how the addresses came about.  However; I need to go to bed, so I will answer this tomorrow.  Have a good night.

[sixdogsmom]

For some reason our street addresses in Moline on the east/west streets flipped from being even on the north side of the street and odd on the south side of the street to being odd on the north side and even on the south side when the streets were east of Main street. I guess this was so people could know that you lived either in East Moline or West Moline. When 911 came through every body east of Main street on the east/west streets had to change their house numbers. This caused a lot of confusion, I was even denied a credit card because of my invalid address, (lol)! I had to prove that I still live here. Even the tax roles had to be changed, we still have a few repercussions from that but I can see the wisdom in the change.

[flo]

I was living in Greenwood county when E911 was implimented.  Lived at route 1 Box 51 for 30 years and all at once lived at 1699 10th street.  Had to do address changes and explain to everyone that NO I HAVE NOT MOVED, just have a different address.

[Diane Amberg]

 I know our situation here isn't quite the same, but downstate is very rural and for 911 (and the poor UPS driver) we used the standardized rural numbering system that assigns a number to about every 500 ft.(1/10 of a mile) so wherever your driveway or farm lane meets the road, that's the number.  (The system that numbers telephone poles works in a similar way.) Every road had to have a name, so people had to make up their minds and agree on it. So box 16, rr#33 turned into 21 Georgetown Road. It took about 5 years to do it all. Also, many names sound very similar on the radio. Kenmar and Kenmark. The numbers help. We also have "enhanced 911", so for residential addresses, the address from which the 911 call is made pops up on the dispatcher's computer screen. It's great for helping children or very ill people.

[Wilma]

The naming system in Elk County was devised to aid people in locating the roads.  Starting at the southwest corner of the county, the north-south roads were given numbers and the east-west roads were given names in alphabetical order.  Anyone that knows their numbers and alphabet can tell just about where in the county a certain road is located.  This is a simple solution except that renaming some roads from what they have always been called didn't set good with local residents.  One road we used consistently was the Cresco Cemetery Road.  Beginning with a C would have put it in the south part of the county, but it is in fact close to the north boundary.  It was renamed Rock Road which also suited it as it is mostly various sizes of rock, from crushed rock to boulders.  The Cresco Cemetery Road is still called just that and the sign that was put up there used both Cresco Cemetery Road and Rock Road along with the Highway 99 designation.  I don't know if Cresco Cemetery is still on the sign or not since the highway was rebuilt.  Janet can and will tell you a lot more about this when she has the time to.

Now, another situation.  When we moved to Sedgwick County, we lived 2 miles south of Haysville but our address was Wichita.  Some years later someone decided that the area south of Haysville should have a Haysville address so our address changed from Wichita to Haysville and we hadn't moved.  We lived there for 26 years.

[flo]

Cresco Road, Busby Road, S Curve, Suicide Curve, Peebles Hill, Lake Road, all gone 

[W. Gray]

Very Interesting.

The most complaints I have heard is that Busby Road is not Busby Road.

I was going to ask Diane also, but she already replied.

It will be interesting to see what Janet says about the addresses. If she was one of several who made the decision that might mean there is no uniform method.

Speaking of UPS, as Diane did, I noticed someone in east Elk County has a colorful rather large well done sign at a lonely intersection somewhere north of Longton. The sign has big UPS lettering along with an address and an arrow pointing up a desolate road in their direction. If those folks made the sign themselves, that sure was good work.

I had to smile but it looks as though UPS was getting turned around even with the new numbering.

[Wilma]

If you are not a native, bred and born and raised in Elk County, the meandering roads will certainly mess you up.  One road, for instance, with no intersections, can go for miles in every direction before reaching another road.  You feel as if you are going in circles.  Which reminds me that one time when Janet was dating a young man from southwestern Elk county, he took her out to the meandering roads northwest of Howard and tried to get her lost.  Didn't work.  He didn't know that was Grandparent territory and she had many times been on all those roads.  Regardless, you need to be prepared like a boy scout if you want to explore the wilderness of Elk County roads.

[greatguns]

We went modern in Greenwood County with the great 911.  Now I can get Butler County or some other seaport in an emergency.  Got to love it.  Now in the rest of the U.S.  I would have a odd number for my address as I live on the south side of the road.  Not here!!!!!  I live at 878.

As far as UPS goes- Had a package sent to Piedmont Cafe.  Had to have a street address before we got these City addresses.  I'm  thinking if you can't find the Cafe once you get to Piedmont maybe you shouldn't have a drivers license.

My sister lives in Cowley County and had to change everything with the 911 addressing.  Got all of her things changed to the new address only to have them tell her they made a mistake.  YEP, she got do to it all over again.  As they say "That's life"