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Road with 7 different names borders on crazy

I was driving up North College Drive, and just past the hairpin turn, there’s a sign that says “County Road 239.” Across the road at the annoying flashing speed limit sign, there’s a “Durango City Limits” sign. Continuing uphill and just before the turnoff to the golf course, there’s this gravel road to the left also marked “County Road 239.” So what’s up with that, and where are the city limits? This is weird. Sign me, G.P.S. Confused.

Durango is an odd place, so naturally its borders reflect this.

The city proper comprises two pieces. Durango’s smaller part is Three Springs, whose boundaries resemble Arkansas with a chunk taken out of the western border and a panhandle extension on the lower left corner.

(To forestall hate mail, this is not calling Three Springs “Arkansas.” It merely refers the outline of the incorporated area.)

The largest share of Durango is an indescribable shape, running from the bottom of Farmington Hill up to the lower end of the Animas Valley, with “wings” encompassing Horse Gulch to the east and Junction Creek to the west.

If you want to see the city’s borders, visit Durango’s official city limits map: http://gis.ci.durango.co.us/DurangoParcels/.

The city limits end at that annoying, flashing speed-limit sign. It then picks up again just past the Rim Drive junction, where a sign informs you of that fact.

The city limits are what they are, and a property owner abutting the city limits can always petition to have the property annexed.

But let’s get back to the real issue here: Does one short road have seven different names? Yup. Here’s how it goes:

From J. Bo’s Pizza uphill to that second annoying flashing sign, the city road is called “North College Drive.” Then the road becomes “County Road 239A.”

The sign on the road may read “County Road 239,” but a variety of online maps confirms it is 239A.

A bizarre side note: There’s a “County Road 239A” but not a “County Road 239B.”

County Road 239A only goes for a short distance, just to the curve at the top of the hill. At his point, the road becomes just plain ol’ “County Road 239.”

Another bizarre side note: The designation County Road 239 not only applies to the road skirting Hillcrest Golf Course, but also to that totally separate, dead-end gravel side road leading up to the City Reservoir.

Anyway, let’s continue our peregrinations toward the Fort Lewis College roundabout.

But wait! At the Jenkins Ranch Road junction, the road inexplicably becomes “County Road 238.”

County government may call it “County Road 238,” but we all know it as “Goeglein Gulch Road.” The federal government agrees, and the U.S. Post Office insists upon it.

For proof, Hillcrest Apartments’ official address is “1000 Goeglein Gulch Road.”

Yet another bizarre side note for those new to Durango: “Goeglein” is pronounced “GIG-line.” It’s a Durango thing, like “flow-REE-da.” Oh, and we drop the “Gulch Road” part and just call it Goeglein.

And speaking of local phrasing, Action Line must scold folks from California who always put “the” in front of highway numbers. The drive from Bayfield to Durango takes place on “160,” not on “the 160.”

Let’s get back to that other road, North College-239A-239-238-Goeglein, et al.

From East Eighth Avenue down to Main Avenue, Goeglein Gulch Road magically changes into “East College Drive.”

Cross Main Avenue to proceed to the Albertsons entrance and the road becomes “West College Drive.”

So there you have it. One road. Seven names. No one bats an eye. What better way to begin Snowdown week?

Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you have a secret strategy to snag a primo parking spot for Friday night’s Snowdown Light Parade.



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