OR 42 is known internally by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) as the Coos Bay-Roseburg Highway No.

[6] Coos and Douglas counties began lobbying the state government for major widening and straightening of OR 42 in the late 1940s due to unsafe conditions and heavy use.

A group of 140 women from the area appealed directly to the Oregon State Highway Commission in 1957 for improvements, but were turned away.

[10][11] A proposal to re-designate the old alignment as U.S. Route 101 Alternate was rejected by the American Association of State Highway Officials in 1971.

[12] On December 23, 2015, a large landslide on a 5-mile-long (8.0 km) section of OR 42 near the Coos–Douglas county line closed the highway to traffic.