Site Information

Welcome to Deadpioneer's Historic Minnesota Highways!

This site is my way of sharing my quixotic quest to map and explore the historic highways of the great state of Minnesota.

Roads and routes become imprinted in our shared memory as we journey down them - the road to Grandma's house - to the cabin - to school - to a new life - or the road home. When these roads are bypassed or transformed, the reality, landmarks, and feelings that formed our shared memory can seem lost to time. But sometimes, something is left behind to remind us....

Site Organization

This site is organized into several primary sections, all accessible from the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Blog:

The blog is where I clue you into updates on the site, highway news, and what I'm working on at the moment.

U.S. Routes:

This section contains pages devoted to individual U.S. routes that have traversed the state of Minnesota over the years. Each page includes interactive maps, photos, and other goodies.

Articles:

This section includes short vignettes on one-off topics.

Maps:

The map section is designed to be a guide to the Official Highway Maps issued by the Minnesota Department of Highways and MN/DOT since 1923 (collecting these maps was my gateway to highway obsession). Thankfully, I no longer have to shell out more than 100 bucks on ebay for the early maps from the 1920's and 1930's, thanks to the Minnesota Digital Library, where the maps from 1919 to 1949 have been scanned and made available for viewing and image download.

Maps on the Page

I make heavy use of the Google Maps API to provide interactive maps of historic highway alignments. The information shown on the maps is written in KML, and edited using Google Earth (if you haven't downloaded this yet, you're missing out!!).

Most of the static maps on the site were created using Adobe Fireworks with public domain aerial photos from the USGS Seamless Data Distribution System. I usually use the NAIP 1 meter resolution color photos, unless I feel the 1991/92 black and white orthophotos are more appropriate, or if the color imagery is not available (here's the standard citation for these aerial photos: Data available from U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD.)

Photos

All of the color photographs on the site are from my own collection unless otherwise credited. I currently use a Nikon Coolpix 5200. If you would like to use one of my photos for non-commercial purposes, please drop me an email (see contact info below). I am 99.9% sure that I will allow it, as long as appropriate credit is given.

Research Sources

Information from MNDOT:

The Minnesota Department of Transportation provides the majority of the historic documents I use to do research on old alignments and highway development. I primarily use the Construction Project Logs (available from the Roadway Data Page) in conjunction with highway construction plans and right-of-way maps, available for download from MN/DOT's Electronic Documents Retrieval System.

Also of interest over is the Historic Roadside Development Structures Homepage, which provides information on the historic structures still under the jurisdiction of MNDOT.

Aerial Photos

Historic aerial photos are an invaluable tool for confirming information on highway plans and revealing details not covered by other documents. A few web sites provide historic aerial photos for viewing or download:

Maps

Official Minnesota Highway Maps:

To take a look at my collection, check out the Map Section of the site. For maps not yet in the collection, I get my information from the Minnesota Digital Library, which provides fully viewable scans of all of the official maps from 1919 to 1949.

Other Historic Maps:

Other Historical Resources:

Other Highway Pages:

Sometimes referred to as "Road Geek" sites, these sites are put together by several other folks who are just as, or more obsessed, with Minnesota highway lore than me.

U.S. Routes

Minnesota Pages

Neighboring State/Province Pages

Other Online Mapping Links:

I strongly suggest using one of the following sites to provide a good reference map while viewing my site, just in case my writing gets you hopelessly lost.

About the Author

Hi, I'm Andrew. I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in Geography in 2003. I currently reside in Minneapolis. When I'm not working on this site I like to dabble in Rock and/or Roll.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or corrections for me, feel free to email me: deadpioneer at yahoo.com

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