Officials say there is no Jefferson Davis National Highway in Arizona

PHOENIX — Officials said they have heard the call to rename the Jefferson Davis National Highway in Arizona, but there was one problem: It doesn’t exist.

In a letter, Arizona Department of Transportation Director John Halikowski said the agency looked into the issue after public outcry surrounding Confederate monuments around the state.

It discovered that there was a highway, U.S. 80, that was given the designation in the early 1960s, but that the name was discontinued when the route was changed to a state highway in 1989.

Halikowski also said the name was never recognized by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads or the Federal Highway Administration.

However, there is a sign along U.S. 60 in Gold Canyon that reads “Jefferson Davis Highway.” Halikowski said the sign is privately owned and does not give the road an official name, something with which activists disagreed.

“ADOT should remove the marker as soon as possible,” state Rep. Reginald Bolding said in a press release. “Given that ADOT has determined that the highway is not officially named after Jefferson Davis, the physical marker clearly needs to come down.”

The marker was damaged two months ago. The monument was covered in tar and feathers, traditionally used to humiliate someone in public.

Arizona has six Confederate monuments, including one in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza that was also vandalized.

Gov. Doug Ducey said the decision to remove the monuments would be left to the public.

“We have a public process for this,” Ducey said. “If the public wants to be engaged in this, I’d invite them to get engaged in it.”

Marshall Trimble, a state historian, said Arizona was briefly a Confederate territory and that a Confederate force occupied Tucson for a few weeks during the Civil War. A small battle took place near Picacho Peak.

Arizona joined the union in 1912.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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