County leaders and city leaders in Bridgeport and Stevenson were not happy about the road being their responsibility and turned down requests to take the road back several times.

The roadway has many bridges and is designed in such a way that maintenance of the road was deemed too expensive for Jackson County.

After a large effort by the county and local state legislators to get the route back under state control, ALDOT reluctantly took back the highway as SR 277, insisting that they would swap mileage with SR 35 west of Scottsboro.

However, that mileage swap never occurred and SR 35 west of Scottsboro remains a state-controlled highway.

SR 277 travels on the original Memphis and Charleston Railroad bed.