Old Highway 1 and Bridge 5742, Dundas

County Roads 1 and 8 through Dundas were once part of the main highway between Faribault and Northfield. Before Minnesota first marked its numbered trunk highways in 1921, the road was part of the famous Jefferson Trail, as well as the Glacier Trail and the Red Ball Route. The construction project log and highway plans show that regrading and paving of the road through Dundas with 18 feet of concrete was completed in 1921, the same year the road was first marked as part of old State Highway 1, the original route between the Iowa border south of Albert Lea and St. Paul. The road was later marked as the original route of U.S. Highway 65 in September of 1926 when the U.S. route system was first marked in Minnesota. Highway 1 and U.S. 65 were cosigned together until May of 1934, when State Highway 1 was retired, and U.S. 65 was joined by U.S. Highway 218 between Owatonna and Farmington (U.S. 218 was downgraded to a state route north of Owatonna in 1935).

In 1936 and 1937, the Department of Highways conducted roadside development operations through Dundas and widened the bridge over Wolf Creek south of town (as mentioned earlier). Small stretches of the old concrete pavement were also paved over with a bituminous surface. Plans for this work appear to have been lost. The old concrete was finally covered permanently by a repaving project in 1946.

The old road through Dundas was bypassed by the construction of a more direct highway between Faribault and Northfield in 1956, the alignment of which is still used by State Highway 3 today (U.S. 65 was moved to a more westerly alignment along what is now I-35 in 1956, Highway 218 was redesignated Highway 3 in about 1961).

For the most part, it appears that much of the old road has retained it original grade and charm. The section through Dundas has been widened and modernized a bit. The two old truss bridges over the Cannon River in Dundas were replaced in 1978.