Highway names

[Laurence Horn]

>There have been discussions on this list in the past about the Southern
>California use of the definite article with Interstate highway
>numbers--e.g., "The Five," which becomes just "Five" or "I-5" somewhere
>between LA and San Francisco, and remains so as far as the Canadian border
>as far as I know.
>
>On a trip to Kansas this past week I discovered another variant of highway
>terminology that I hadn't encountered before.  Here in Oregon we speak of
>"Highway 99," and that's the usage everywhere else I've lived, to the best
>of my recollection.
>
>In Bucklin, Kansas, I asked directions and was told that my destination lay
>somewhere north on "154 Highway" (not "Highway 154").  Later I noticed a
>sign at an intersection southwest of Hutchinson that identified the road I
>was on as "KS 61 Highway" (as opposed to "KS Highway 61" or "SR 61").
>
>Is this usage peculiar to Kansas, or is it more widespread?
>
I think it's just Kansas. Based on this and the fact that the
abbreviation for the University of Kansas is KU, I can only surmise
that Kansas is free-word-order territory.  (Wasn't that one of the
causes of the Civil War?)

larry