Texas State Highway Spur 77

State Highway Spur 77
State Highway Spur 77
	Spur 77 highlighted in red
Route information
	Maintained by TxDOT
Length	0.478 mi (769 m)
Existed	October 25, 1990–present
History	Formerly a route in Swisher County
Major junctions
South end	Mt. Fowlkes summit, McDonald Observatory
North end	Spur 78
Location
Counties	Jeff Davis
Highway system
	Highways in Texas; Interstate; US; State; Toll; Loops; Spurs; FM/RM; Park; Rec;

Spur 77 descending Mt. Fowlkes. Spur 78 ascends Mt. Locke in the distance.

Texas State Highway Spur 77 or Spur 77 is a spur road maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) connecting the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory complex atop Mt. Fowlkes to Spur 78 16.3 miles (26.2 km) from Fort Davis.^[2] The road is 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long and is located within Jeff Davis County.

Previously, the route designation belonged to a loop road in the Texas Panhandle.

History[]

Swisher County[]

The numerical designation originally belonged to Texas State Highway Loop 77 in the town of Tulia in Swisher County. This original route was in place by the time the state's Highway Designation Files were established in 1939. The Tulia loop began at the intersection of U.S. Route 87 and State Highway 86 and continued east along SH 86 to the present day Maxwell Street. The loop then followed north over Maxwell Street to the intersection with present-day FM 1318. The loop then continued west back to US 87.

On August 6, 1951, the loop designation was dropped along the portions following Maxwell Street (became part of Farm to Market Road 146; given to the city on September 4, 1963), and the designation of the remaining portion was eliminated on September 4, 1963 with that stretch reassigned to FM 1318.^[1]

Jeff Davis County[]

The current spur was established on October 25, 1990 to provide state highway access to McDonald's growing cluster of observational facilities at the summit of Mt. Fowlkes.^[1]

Route description[]

The spur begins at McDonald Observatory's complex of facilities at the summit of Mt. Fowlkes including NASA's Laser Ranging System and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The spur then follows 0.5 miles (0.8 km) along the saddle of a ridge joining Mt. Fowlkes to Mt. Locke until it terminates at Spur 78 1.0 mile (1.6 km) from SH 118 and 0.5 miles (0.8 km) from the observatory's facilities atop Mt. Locke.