Oklahoma State Highway 8

US-270, US-281, and SH-8 in Watonga, looking southbound.

The highway begins in Cyril, at US-277 (which at the time is concurrent with State Highway 19), and immediately heads northward. Fourteen miles (23 km) later, the highway passes through Anadarko, sharing a brief overlap with US-62/SH-9. It also becomes concurrent with US-281 here, which it remains with after passing through Anadarko.[2]

US-281 and SH-8 continue northward to meet SH-152, which they overlap for five miles (8.0 km). SH-152 splits off to the west at Binger, and US-281/SH-8 go northward through Lookeba to meet SH-37 at its western terminus in Hinton. Four miles (6.4 km) to the north, the two highways have an interchange with Interstate 40 at its milemarker 101. After this, US-281/SH-8 cross the Canadian River and begin a concurrency with U.S. Highway 270 in Geary. SH-8 splits off by itself after passing through Watonga, sixteen miles (26 km) to the north.[2]

North of Watonga, SH-8 generally runs parallel to SH-51A and, after intersecting SH-51 in Okeene, it runs parallel to SH-58. Eleven miles (18 km) north of Okeene, SH-58 and SH-8 switch places through a 9-mile (14 km) overlap, with SH-8 ending up running to the west through Fairview and SH-58 running to the east to Ringwood.[2]

After swapping places with SH-58, Highway 8 continues north, overlapping US-60 for nine miles (14 km), spending the last three miles (4.8 km) also signed concurrently with US-412.[2] Eleven miles (18 km) north of this, SH-8 has a three-mile (4.8 km) concurrency with SH-45 southeast of Carmen. Through Cherokee, the Alfalfa County seat, it overlaps U.S. Highway 64 and SH-58. After US-64 splits off to the west, SH-11 joins the concurrency.[2]

After six miles (9.7 km), SH-58 splits off to the northeast. SH-11 and SH-8 remain overlapped for seven more miles (11.3 km)[2] before splitting off to the north. SH-8 ends seven miles (11 km) to the north of this at the Kansas state line.[2] After crossing the state line, it becomes K-8, which soon ends at K-2 in Kiowa, Kansas.[3]

SH-8 was one of the original thirty-one state highways created on 1924-08-24.[4] When it was created, it was a border-to-border highway, stretching from Texas to Kansas. It began at the Red River near Burkburnett, Texas. It then passed through Randlett and had a short concurrency with SH-5 west of Walters. The highway then ran through Lawton—concurring with the original SH-29—en route to Anadarko via Apache. In Anadarko, SH-8 linked up with the present highway. The remainder of the route was mostly the same as it is today.[5]

In November 1926, AASHTO officially approved the United States Numbered Highways system. The Oklahoma Transportation Commission applied the national highways to Oklahoma's state highway system on 1926-11-26. Three U.S. highways were assigned to portions of what was then SH-8: U.S. Highway 64 was added to a segment of highway south of Cherokee, U.S. Highway 66 was added between Bridgeport and Geary, and U.S. Highway 70 was added from the Texas state line to Randlett.[4] US-66 and 64 merely ran concurrently with SH-8. However, US-70 completely replaced the state highway, which was truncated so that its southern terminus was at US-70 in Randlett.[6]

By 1936, several U.S. highways had been added to the system that took over parts of State Highway 8's route. US-62, added in 1930, took over the Lawton–Anadarko portion of the road. US-277 took over much of the remaining route between Randlett and Lawton. In addition, a US-70N had been created that overlaid US-277 between Randlett and the split with SH-5 west of Walters.[7] These changes to the U.S. route system precipitated the truncation of SH-8 in 1936. On 1936-03-13, the section of the route between Anadarko and the state line was dropped. However, a new road between Anadarko and Cyril had been built; this became part of SH-8 and set the highway's southern terminus at its present location.[4]

By the end of 1937, however, the highway's southern terminus had changed once again. On 1937-10-19, SH-8 had been truncated to Anadarko.[4][8] However, on 1938-10-18, the route was extended back to the former southern terminus at Randlett;[4] this change did not appear on the state map until the April 1941 edition. On 1941-04-14, the route was realigned to run through Cyril once again.[4]

On 1955-09-12, SH-8 underwent a small realignment.[4] Previously, the highway went due north from Carmen, then turned due east, running through Lambert before connecting to US-64 south of Cherokee.[9] As a result of the 1955 realignment, SH-8 cut northeast to connect to US-64 directly, bypassing Lambert.[10]

All of SH-8 between Randlett and Cyril was once again dropped on 1966-05-09,[4] restoring the route to its current southern terminus at US-277/SH-19 in Cyril. No major changes to the highway have occurred since 1966.

• SH-8A runs from SH-8 to SH-51A, north of Watonga. Along the way, it provides access to Roman Nose State Park.
• A former SH-8A connected the highway to the town of Geronimo. When SH-8 was truncated to Cyril in 1966, it became SH-281A.
• SH-8B is a spur route from SH-8 to Aline.

• List of state highways in Oklahoma

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oklahoma State Highway 8.

• SH-8 at OKHighways
• SH-8A at OKHighways
• SH-8B at OKHighways
• OK-8 on Two Wheel Oklahoma