It ran due north as a section line road past a Civilian Conservation Corps camp through an unincorporated area.

Continuing north, AR 173 crossed the St. Louis Southwestern Railway tracks and St. Louis and San Francisco Railway tracks and passed through the campus of Arkansas State College (now known as Arkansas State University), an area known as Aggie (the former nickname of the college's athletic teams).

[1] By 1961, the area had been annexed into Jonesboro, and the Arkansas State Highway Commission extended the designation south to AR 18 (Nettleton Road).

[3] On February 22, 1967, the designation was extended south to US 63 along a new terrain bypass (current I-555).

[6] The remainder of AR 173 was deleted on April 27, 1979 in a swap involving many highways requested by the Craighead County Judge.