Marking the right of way on Old State Road 67

As you drive old highways, you’ll occasionally see right-of-way markers. In many states they are low concrete posts, but regardless what they’re made of their markings usually include “R/W” or “ROW.” The markings usually face the road that the state owns or owned, and the back edge of the marker is the outer limit of the right of way. If you can read the R/W marking, you are standing in the right of way. Most right-of-way markers you find in Indiana look like this. More recent markers, I hear, just read “R/W” without the “IND.”

Old SR 67 NE of Worthington

States generally place right-of-way markers when they build or improve a road, to mark land that they purchased for that purpose. I’ve seen dozens of these on Indiana highways and old highway alignments. But I’ve never seen one on a narrow gravel road before.

Old SR 67 NE of Worthington

This right-of-way marker is approximately at the location at this link, on County Road 940 N, about 3½ miles northeast of Worthington. It’s hard to believe that this road was ever State Road 67, as it in no way matches modern conceptions of a highway. But the right-of-way marker says otherwise — that this road was an improvement over some earlier configuration or construction of this bit of highway!

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Comments

6 responses to “Marking the right of way on Old State Road 67”

  1. tcshideler Avatar

    There’s a pair of these at the intersection of a pair of county roads maybe a mile away from an old alignment of US-35/SR21 in northern Delaware County. I haven’t done any research yet but I assume they were moved there when the state road was decommissioned.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      They generally don’t move those markers. Once placed, they remain. I’d look into whether those county roads were ever state roads.

      There’s two of these on one of the roads in my suburban neighborhood. Most people don’t realize that that road used to be SR 334.

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/51171770872/

  2. J P Avatar

    I had seen these but never knew what they were.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      NOW YOU KNOW.

  3. Ted Shideler Avatar

    I had no idea that so many of these still existed- I’m astounded. On the way home from work today I counted 17 -17!- on State Road 32 between Yorktown Elementary School and Nebo Road in suburban/rural Delaware County, a distance of a mile and a half. I’ve driven that stretch probably several thousand times and never noticed them. The road has been widened several times.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Crazy, isn’t it? I just found another ROW marker on old 334 by my house, hidden in the brush.

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