Lida Road previously carried the southern end of State Route 3.

SR 266 reaches its eastern terminus at the Lida Junction, an intersection with US 95 14 miles (23 km) south of Goldfield.

On the south side of the highway is the Lida Junction Airport—which was originally built to provide more convenient access to the now defunct Cottontail Ranch, located immediately southwest of the highway junction.

[3] Maps dating back to 1917 show SR 3 curving northward a few miles east of Lida on its trek towards Goldfield and points further north.

[4] The eastern portion of the present-day route was constructed as a graded highway by 1937,[5] with the new alignment replacing the unimproved northeast leg by 1940.