A highway that bears no resemblance to the route of yesteryear, GA 156 underwent tremendous changes from when it was first commissioned. In the early years, GA 156 could well be described as a route unsure of where it was going. The route was so fragmented that piecing the road together would have been awkward, and at the time, the State Highway Department did not seem to be too interested in eliminating those other routes and/or joining the fragments with overlaps on other highways to make GA 156 a continuous route. In all, the highway was shaped like a broken hook. The route being described here is not the GA 156 today, but instead the long removed Pickens County portion. That route basically entered the county in the middle of nowhere, extended east to bow back to end at GA 53 in western Pickens County, then picked up again in the middle of nowhere to end in Waleska. Yes, GA 156 was an odd route, and here it will all be explained.

To those living in Pickens and Cherokee Counties today, probably few remember when GA 156 spliced its way through the two counties. Interestingly enough, despite the fact that GA 156 has been long removed from Pickens County, it was in fact the original part of the highway, existing years before GA 156 was found west of U.S. 411. The entire original route is shown below:

Historic GA 156 along its original alignments (1956 GHD Map)

Now a long distant memory, indeed GA 156 once included a highway covering three counties: Gordon, Pickens, Cherokee and a small part of Murray. Of those three, only Gordon still retains part of that original route. To help those looking at the map above, the route of GA 156 shown followed present-day GA 108, 136 and 136 Connector. Note in this that Floyd was not included in that list; this is further discussed in another section. In addition to the fact that GA 156 once went through two counties it no longer does, it should also be noted what a poorly planned route it was. Basically, GA 156 consisted of two disjointed routes, one of those which almost double-backed on itself. Of those two disjointed routes, one of those actually connected to the GA 156 of today in Gordon County, the other had no logical explanation whatsoever except that obviously the Georgia Highway Department was trying to find a way to conserve new highway numbers. Indeed, several other highways in Georgia joined GA 156 as duplicate routes, so it is not entirely surprising. The last of those today is GA 177.

When looking at the map shown here, one thing remains obvious is that GA 156 should be routed onto GA 143 so that the route would zig-zag up to the existing GA 156 in Hinton (intersection of GA 156 and 53). However, this never happened. What did actually happen will be discussed as the story of the highway continues. The background below is written in the order the events happened.

By 1958, GA 156 was extended along Redbud and Rosedale Roads across Gordon County. While the original route ended at U.S. 411/GA 61 where present-day Old U.S. 411 intersects GA 136, the extension followed a five-mile long dogleg with U.S. 411 before extending westward from U.S. 411 south of Ranger along Redbud Road, joining and overlapping U.S. 41 in Calhoun and then extending along Rosedale Road to end at the Floyd County line 11 miles to the west.

GA 156 extension westward through Gordon County to Floyd County line (1958 GHD Map)

While this extension was good for Gordon County, neither section truly served as an important route. It should be remembered, however, that this was an era in Georgia history where the priority was more to get through routes paved (usually requiring state control) and not as much intrastate mobility. As this originally caused GA 156 to be a segmented highway, almost the entire extension in Gordon County remains to this day as GA 156.

Before the major changes that were yet to come that would completely transform the route, two less dramatic, yet important changes occured along GA 156 in the years it was routed within Cherokee County. On the first map, it must be noted that GA 156 does not follow exactly the same route followed by present-day GA 108 between Waleska and former GA 143. Note the subtle change in the two maps below:

GA 156 relocation from southeast of Waleska to the town itself (1958 and 1959 GHD Maps)

When studying the early 1950's maps closely, it is obvious that GA 156 joins GA 140 a mile south of the the route in Waleska. In fact, the route between Waleska and the Sharp Top community was indeed relocated by 1959. Though the exact route is not totally clear, in looking at more detailed county maps, it is apparent that the original route followed present-day Land Road and then turned north on Upper Burris Road in the Clayton Community to rejoin present-day GA 108, then known as Fincher Road. While this was a more subtle change, a more significant change in the county occured over a decade later.

In 1967, Fincher Road (the original name of present-day GA 108) between Waleska and GA 20 the southwest in the Sutallee community was fully paved and finally up to the state standards of the day. Not shown on the map in previous years, the road either did not fully connect or was not in any condition to serve as a highway. Respectively, for those many years previous, GA 156 had only existed to serve as a link between Waleska and the Tate community, but had never served as truly a through route. While GA 156 continued in this manner, Fincher Road began to demonstrate that it was a major cutoff route northwest of Canton.

GA 156 extension southwest along former Fincher Road (1970 and 1972 GHD Maps)

As the regional importance of the route became clear, by 1972 the State finally made the decision to extend GA 156 along Fincher Road so that the route now ended at GA 20, for the first time connecting Tate and Waleska to Cartersville and beyond without forcing travelers to drive through Canton the south. The maps above have been provided to show GA 156 before and after: the gray line connecting GA 20 to GA 156 in Waleska is Fincher Road. Though these changes were notable in the history of the route, they were dwarfed by what was still yet to come five years later.

By the late 1970's, under then commissioner Tom Moreland's direction, the most sweeping changes in the history of Georgia roads commenced. 1977 marked the beginning statewide of massive decommissionings, relocations, extensions and realignments of highways. GA 156 turned about to be no exception to this rule. As it was, the route had become very strange considering that due to the partial truncation of GA 143, travelers could travel west on GA 143 out of Tate and suddenly be on GA 156 for no clear reason since the unpaved GA 143 had been truncated to projected mileage a couple years earlier.

Click on either one of the maps above to view them in better detail. Maps show GA 156 before and after major decommissioning east of US 411 (1977 and 1978 GDOT Maps)

As it was a peculiar situation and difficult to explain, the maps above show a clear story of what transpired. Not only were the two disconnected segments confusing, but GDOT had big plans for extending GA 136 all the way to the Alabama state line. Included in this route was GA 156 along the northern portion. As a result, GDOT ended up renumbering GA 156 and 143 as an extension of GA 108, 136 and created the routes 136 Connector and 379 in place of portions of GA 156 and 143.

By the simple act of a pen stroke, all of the original GA 156 ceased to exist. In fact, all of GA 156, instead of being east of US 411, was now all west of US 411 along a route commissioned 20 years earlier originally as an extension! This change would permanently redefine the route, but was still not the last major change to occur as the tale of complicated history of GA 156 continues.

As a route that has seen significant change, yet another major change was made in 1979. It was not the last major change, but the last extremely significant one. This change, more positive than the 1977 purge, resulted in the extension of GA 156 westward to US 27 in Armuchee, Floyd County. In previous years, GA 156 had ended at the county line, continuing as a substandard county road into the Floyd Springs community. However, GDOT finally saw that the connectivity was more important than a highway to nowhere. Thus, GDOT made the necessary improvements as well as relocation south of the Floyd Springs community to extend GA 156 to US 27. This change brought an end to a segmented highway that had remained as such for over 20 years. Compare the two maps below showing the before and after routings of GA 156 from Calhoun to Armuchee.

SR 156 before and after the extension to US 27 (1976 and 1981 GDOT Maps)

For the most part, the completion of the extension to US 27 in Armuchee finally spelled the end of massive lengthenings and shortenings along GA 156. By then, it seemed like it was enough, and the route has mostly remained static for nearly three decades. Nevertheless, GA 156 had one more location causing an irritation for the city of Calhoun. This itchy spot was the final change: a change that was made in the mid-1980's.

As if GDOT was never satisfied with how GA 156 was configured, the last major change came to the highway, this time around 1985. In this final relocation to date, GA 156 was relocated along various streets through industrial areas northwest of Calhoun in order to align GA 156 west to GA 156 east (Redbud Road) and eliminate the multiplex with US 41. The likely reason this was done, since the map proves it is neither the shortest nor best route, is to remove trucks from US 41 through Calhoun itself. Since GA 156, a truck route, was routed along part of US 41, this is the likely reason for the relocation.

On this Mapquest map, the red route is the former alignment of GA 156 and the blue is the current route.

With this change fully in place by 1985, one small portion of GA 156 in Calhoun, shown above between US 41/GA 3 and the intersection of GA 136 Connector/GA 156 west, has since been returned to local control. Because GDOT maps do not adequately show this, these Mapquest maps were used instead.