Arizona State Route 80
Summary
Arizona State Highway 80, or AZ-80 for short, is a roughly arc-shaped highway lying in southeastern Arizona that, with New Mexico State Highway 80, is a relic of the old U.S. Highway 80, now decommissioned, between San Diego and Dallas. This segment of old US 80 was not closely parallelled by Interstate 10, which lies to its north, and instead supplants the old and more direct (defunct in eastern Arizona) Arizona State Highway 86.
Its western terminus is on Interstate 10 at Benson, Arizona; the eastern terminus is on the New Mexico state line. It passes through Tombstone, the (in)famous Wild West town, Bisbee, and Douglas on the border with the Mexican federal state of Sonora and in which it meets U.S. Highway 191. All of it is surface road, and it is the route of the Butterfield Stage Coach of the nineteenth century, and the Old Spanish Trail. This highway is steeped in history and many events along its route are part of the lore in books and movies.
It is not a very direct route; west of Douglas it is almost as much a north-south route as an east-west route, and it is practically a north-south route east of Douglas. Those who want a strong taste of the Wild West will take this side trip off the Interstate with delight.