Virginia State Route 160
State highway in Wise County, Virginia, US
State Route 160 (SR 160) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as the Trail of the Lonesome Pine, the state highway runs 8.02 miles (12.91 km) from the Kentucky state line on top of Black Mountain, where the highway continues north as Kentucky Route 160 (KY 160), east to SR 68 in Appalachia. Due to the mountainous terrain and numerous tight bends, Virginia State Route 160 and its Kentucky State Route 160 counterpart are signposted closed to tractor-trailers between Lynch, KY and Appalachia, VA.
Route description
SR 160 begins on top of Black Mountain at the Kentucky state line, which follows the Tennessee Valley Divide. The highest elevation in Kentucky can be accessed by following Black Mountain Ridge Road, which intersects KY 160 just west of the state line, to the summit of the mountain. SR 160 has a winding descent featuring several hairpin turn to the valley of Looney Creek, which the highway follows east toward Appalachia. The state highway enters the town shortly before reaching its eastern terminus at its intersection with SR 68 (Exeter Road), which itself reaches its terminus at U.S. Route 23 Business (Main Street) at the southern edge of downtown Appalachia.
History
SR 160 was initially numbered State Route 115 in the 1923 renumbering as a spur from State Route 11 in Appalachia. This road, known as the Lynch Highway (as it led to Lynch, Kentucky), was added to the state highway system in early 1923. However, it was soon removed pending investigation of a conflicting contract for a turnpike company to build the road, but almost immediately reinstated, with the turnpike's right-of-way deed transferred to the state. In the 1928 renumbering, the road was renumbered as part of State Route 106 (which also continued south from Appalachia along SR 11 to Big Stone Gap and then to State Route 10 at Clinchport, replacing State Route 116), and it became State Route 67 in the 1933 renumbering.
“Virginia State Route 160” enters the record as state highway in Wise County, Virginia, US. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Virginia, State and Route can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Virginia State Route 160” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Virginia, State and Route provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 21, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2507926. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1928 and 1933.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Virginia State Route 160” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.