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History of Secondary Highway 559 (#1):
The first Secondary Highway 559 was Ontario's shortest-lived highway designation, lasting for a mere 84 days in mid-1956. The Highway 559 designation was so
short-lived in fact, that the route was likely never posted with actual route markers along the highway itself. The strange history of Highway 559 dates back to the
late 1940s, when a new road was completed between Thessalon and Chapleau. The northernmost 81 miles of the Thessalon-Chapleau Highway from Aubrey Falls to Chapleau
was designated as a King's Highway in sections between 1950 and 1954, but the southernmost 68 miles of the Thessalon-Chapleau Highway was not designated as a
provincial highway. During 1956, the King's Highway 129 designation was assigned to the northernmost 81.4 miles (131.1 km) of the route from Aubrey Falls to Chapleau.
For some reason, the southernmost 68 miles (109.5 km) of the Thessalon-Chapleau Highway between Thessalon and Aubrey Falls was initially designated as a Secondary
Highway, rather than a (logical) southerly extension of King's Highway 129. The 68-mile route from Thessalon to Aubrey Falls was designated as Secondary Highway 559
by an Order-in-Council dated May 9, 1956. Very shortly thereafter, it was decided that the Thessalon-Chapleau route was important enough that it ought to be
designated as a King's Highway in its entirety. On August 1, 1956, another Order-in-Council was passed which legally re-designated Secondary Highway 559 from
Thessalon to Aubrey Falls as King's Highway 129. However, references to Highway 559's very brief existence can be found on the 1956 Official Ontario Road Map, as well
as other documents produced by the Department of Highways throughout the summer of 1956. A different, unrelated
Highway 559 was established in the Parry Sound area in 1961.
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