Union Star Road

The map is marked at the location of the Gragg farm house on the road designated as Union Star Road.  I didn't know that road name and often refer to it as the connecting road between Bethlehem Road and the Hogeye loop.  Another mistake I made was the idea that, because it made a loop from West Fork, Hogeye took its name from the shape.  Wrong!  The loop is much larger than I remember, involves three or four State Highway numbers, is not eye-shaped, and Hogeye is an actual place name (half way to Oklahoma).

My guess is that the name, Union Star Road, comes from a long defunct mail route.  Robert G. Winn refers to the Union Star Road in his fine article "Old Bethlehem".  An editorial remark at the end of his article says :

       Union Star Road turns left off Highway 170.  Devil's Den Road south of West Fork :  it crosses the head of Lee Creek and joins Highway 74, the Devil's Den Road out of Winslow a short distance east of Blackburn Community Church in southwest Washington County.

Ugh!  This is messed up.  State Highway 170 traces at least the southern part of the Hogeye Loop from West Fork town and is referred to by Yankees as the Devil's Den Road because, after numerous highway intersections, you can get to Devil's Den that way.  Heck, you can get to Devil's Den from Oklahoma City if you have a compass.  Union Star Road turns south from Hogeye about ten miles southwest (not south) of West Fork.  (It has nothing to do with "the head of Lee Creek" or Devil's Den Park.)  It joins Bethlehem Road, as shown on our map, and uses the western portion of Bethlehem Road as it continues south.  Bethlehem Road (Union Star Road) comes to an end at the junction with Highway 74, the real Devil's Den Road out of Winslow.

Let's trace some road names.  The short distance south of West Fork has always been known as the Pitkin Road, or Woolsey Road, until it gets to Pitkin Corner.  From Pitkin, Winn Creek Road generally follows Winn Creek, uphill and south, all the way to Highway 74 (The road favors Porter Hollow in its southern reaches).  Highway 74 didn't always have a State Highway designation but existed as an unimproved road, connecting Winslow with Blackburn and the Devil's Den area.  The earliest name in common usage was probably Blackburn Road, although it is now known as the Devil's Den State Park Road.

There is a crossroads at Caudle Corner (on Winn Crick) where there has always been a road, climbing Caudle Hill and running along the highest elevation in the area, that curves around to meet Highway 74 at the same intersection as Winn Creek Road.  This road, the one we are calling Bethlehem Road, never had a name, as far as I know, until the Union Star mail route was established.  People who lived on this path might have referred to it as Blackburn Road because, to them, it was the way to the Blackburn settlement.  The Bethlehem Road name could not have pre-dated 1920 because that's when the Bethlehem Church was moved there from Lee Crick Bottom.  I'd never heard the name and continued to call it Blackburn Road until I saw the name Bethlehem Road on an online map.  Well, the map makers didn't know what to call it either and picked a name from a U.S. survey map that identified the Church, which was the most likely namesake.  I like the name and will continue to propagate it for the road from Caudle Corner, past Bethlehem Church, and to the Devil's Den Road.

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