[3] Highway 196 begins at an intersection with U.S. Route 71 (US 71) in the College Hill area of Texarkana.

East of Greenwich Village, the route starts to travel in a southeast direction out of the city, passes the Creekwood subdivision, then turns south at an intersection with County Road 70.

The route was created by the Arkansas State Highway Commission on June 23, 1965.

[2] It began at Forest Avenue in Texarkana and ran east of Genoa.

This erroneous description was rescinded on September 29, 1965, and the western terminus was modified to the current alignment.