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This page is dedicated to rediscovering Minnesota's forgotten trunk highways and highway history, including both routes and the infrastructure left behind. The information on this site serves as a documentation of my personal research and travels in search of Minnesota Highway history. I am in no way affiliated with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, or any other organization.
If this is your first time here, I suggest taking a look at the introduction to fill up on some background information, the methods and sources I use to do my research, and my reasons for undertaking this project. For some basic information on Minnesota's Trunk Highway System, check out the Minnesota Highway Primer.
Featured Projects:
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Updated August 21, 2008 |
Updated January 20, 2008 |
Featured Articles:
March 29, 2008 - Old Highway 1 and Bridge 5742, Dundas
Photos and a history of short stretch of old Highway 1 in and south of the city of Dundas, just south of Northfield in Rice County, Minnesota.
News and Updates
May 30, 2008
New photos for the U.S. 61 project are on the way! I was able to make a quick visit to a few old alignments north of Winona on the way back from my sister's college graduation a few weeks back. The photos for the old alignments at Minnesota City are now up. I have photos for two more old alignments on the way, so keep checking back over the next couple of weeks (Update, June 1, 2008 - These are now up, here and here)! Work on improvements to the U.S. 61 project are continuing, so some old links may seem broken. All the pages should still be up, so let me know if you find anything out of the ordinary.
April 10, 2008
Big updates at the U.S. 61 Project!! I've updated the format and organization, plus I've added Google Map functionality! Check it out! (link goes to an example).
April 5, 2008
New site design is up! Most of the changes are cosmetic. The light text on a dark background design choice I made a few years ago was starting to bug me.
March 29, 2008
Whew! There's too much to say, so I won't say most of it. I am working on yet another massive reworking of the U.S. 61 project for the future, which will probably start to show up on the site soon. In the meantime, a new article is up featuring a short stretch of old Highway 1 through Dundas. I took an emergency trip down there yesterday to make sure I got pictures of an old highway bridge that will be replaced sometime this summer.
November 25, 2007
Back in business!!! My move is complete, and the internet is back "on", so I guess now would be a good time to start posting the new photos and information I gathered on an expedition down US 61 from the Wisconsin State Line to Winona back in October. It was a bit cloudy, so the photos are taking a bit more touching up than usual. Southeastern Minnesota was a bit worse for wear from the flooding event that occurred back in September, but US 61 was all clear and open for business. Construction crews were still working on the new alignment and junction at La Crescent, which made for some interesting shots. I tried to time my trip to coincide with the fall color, but the trees were all on different calendars this year. The color was nice, but far from spectacular. Anyway, I hope to get the rest of the photos up in the next couple of weeks, and then maybe get to work on some updates for the Dakota County Project and the Maps section. For now, follow the link HERE to head over to the US 61 project. Check the update section in the upper right to find the pages with new photos/info. Enjoy!
November 1, 2007
Updates to the map page continue! The good people at MNDOT have found it in their hearts to scan all of the official highway maps in their collection up to 1949, and include them at the Minnesota Digital LIbrary for free viewing and download. Coincidentally, I now have profiles for the official maps from 1923 through 1933 posted, with various other updates and formatting revisions.
In other news, I'm moving this weekend, so expect a delay in updates for awhile until I can get my internet situation finalized. I have a whole bunch of photos to post from an expedition down US 61 in Houston and Winona Counties I took a few weeks back, so hopefully that will happen sooner than later.
October 6, 2007
Ok, so I lied. I barely had any time to get out on the road this summer. I've spent most of the time refining the existing pages on the site to make them easier to navigate (and improve the writing and research a bit too). With moving, work, and the class I'm taking, I've found it difficult to get a whole lot done. I do have a trip down US 61 planned for before the end of October, when I will be moving yet again, so there will probably be another stretch of down-time. Look for continued updates to the US 61 and Dakota County Projects, as well as the map collection in the coming months. After those projects are done, I'm considering a big project on Minnesota's original Constitutional Route System, which I feel hasn't been covered as much as it should. Anyway, for those of you who have somehow found this site (I haven't really advertised it yet), thanks for your emails and interest.
May 19, 2007
Its finally summer, which of course means more highway photo expeditions! On the slate for this summer I have a bunch of trips down US 61 in southeastern Minnesota in the works, as well as a few more shorter trips to finish up photography for the Dakota County Project. On the days its too hot to be driving around without air conditioning, I plan on getting the research done for the northern part of US 61 from the Twin Cities to Canada so I can be ready to drive north come fall. I am currently working on some redesigns for the Dakota County and US 61 projects to make them a bit easier to navigate. I also have a bunch of pictures I recently took of US 61 on St. Paul's east side to get ready for posting. I'll be posting things as I go along, so expect frequent updates over the next several months.
March 18, 2007
It was finally nice enough this weekend to head out another photo expedition down US Highway 61. I took over a hundred new photos from 494 to Red Wing, so expect those to show up over at the US 61 project in the next few weeks.
March 12, 2007
New maps in the collection! My 1939 and 1940 official maps arrived in the mail today! I haven't quite got to doing profiles on them yet, but the covers are up on the main maps page.
March 1, 2007
The US 61: St. Paul to LaCrosse project is finally "complete"! By "complete" I mean the initial posting and diagrams. I still have quite a few photos to take this spring and summer, plus some tweaks to the page designs. I am planning on extending the project to all of US 61's route through Minnesota, including the old highway to Duluth, and the north shore drive! That should keep me busy for awhile.
January 19, 2007
Wabasha County (south) is now up at the US 61 Project.
January 14, 2007
Wabasha County (central) is now up at the US 61 Project. Check out these photos of the old bridges at Kellogg!
January 12, 2007
Wabasha County (north) is now up over at the US 61: St. Paul to La Crosse project. Sorry, but no photos for this section as of yet. I have another class starting next week, so there may be less updates until summer. Then again, I'm a firm believer in what an old friend calls "productive procrastination", so I think the updates will most likely continue.
January 7, 2007
Goodhue County (South) is now up over at the US 61: St. Paul to La Crosse project. A few of the articles have photos I took back in 2005 of 296th Street in Florence Township, and of Hillside Drive in Wacouta Township.
December 31, 2006
More and more updates to the US 61 project! Diagrams are now up for Ramsey, Washington, Dakota, and Goodhue County (north), plus a load of pictures for Dakota County. In map news, I've obtained a 1947 and 1937 for the collection. I'll try to post those in the next couple of weeks.
December 13, 2006
I just completed an overhaul of the US Highway 61: St. Paul to La Crosse project, with the Ramsey County section now open and complete! I'll be adding more info and photos in the weeks to come.
November 24, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving! The site recently underwent a major file restructuring to get it ready for future expansion. Navigation on the site has remained unchanged.
I went on another trip down Highway 13 yesterday on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner. I've added photos from the expedition to the photo pages (parts 1 and 2) for Highway 13, as well as some photos on the Old Sibley Highway.
November 4, 2006
I finally completed the revised Dakota County Highway History! I've also shrunk the text on the site to make it look better on monitors set to lower resolutions.
September 14, 2006
Well, back to school! I'm actually taking a graduate GIS class this fall, so hopefully I'll still have time to get this site into a semi-viewable state. I'm still plugging away at getting the map profiles done, and I'm up to 1951 now. Just 40 more to go! (groan). I'm also still trying to get more photos and lost highways up at the Dakota County Project (click on the highway signs on the route chart!).
August 19, 2006
The move to the new domain is complete! Welcome to www.deadpioneer.com! I've been working to finally get the Dakota County Project complete the last few weeks, but its become apparent that it'll still take some time, and a few more expeditions for more photos, but the ol' Honda is a little unhappy right now, so it may be a bit, plus I'm probably starting a GIS class here in a couple of weeks.
In good news, I got my hands on the 1927 Official Highway Map! The profile is up over in the maps section.