Natalia Galicza at Deseret News:
The asphalt stretches in a straight line for so long that the road seems to melt into the Nevada horizon, sun-bleached boulders and gnarled sagebrush blurring by at more than 70 mph. A road sign warns that the next gas station is 167 miles away. Another sign soon explains why that is. This is U.S. Highway 50, “The Loneliest Road in America.”
You can drive for hours on this blacktop connecting Nevada to California and Utah on either side and never see another car. But it was a 1986 Life magazine article that gave this arid stretch its superlative name. In it, a AAA spokesperson describes the road as something akin to a wasteland. “There are no points of interest,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t recommend it. … We warn all motorists not to drive there unless they’re confident of their survival skills.” The piece featured a long shot of the highway. Its caption, the same five words that eventually made their way onto that sign.
Rather than fight it, Nevada’s Commission on Tourism leaned in, that same year launching its “I Survived Highway 50” program to encourage more people to visit the lonesome road.
More here.
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