Deadpioneer's Historic Minnesota Highways Blog

Mn/DOT Restoration of Burns Avenue Overlook

deadpioneer — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 20:45:16 +0000

The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota recently posted about the ongoing restoration of the Burns Avenue overlook in St Paul using a photo from an article here on the site! Check out their post here.

Video of the Hastings Spiral Bridge

deadpioneer — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:19:14 +0000

An amazing video has been digitized of the historic Spiral Bridge in Hastings, showing it in use before its demolition, and a brief shot of its demise. You can check it out here. Thanks to Cathy Wurzer for posting this on the Tales of the Road facebook page!

New Photos of Old Highway 28 at Westport

deadpioneer — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 07:03:42 +0000

Just added a few new photos to the “Old Highway 28″ article from a visit I made in February. Sadly, the historic Westport signs on the edges of town have been stripped of their 1960 census populations, and new green name plates have been bolted on.

Remnant of the Hiawatha Pioneer Trail on West 7th Street in St Paul

deadpioneer — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:07:29 +0000

Jeff Adams of St Paul sent in the above photo of a fading marker for the old Hiawatha Pioneer Trail he found on W 7th Street (State Hwy 5) in St Paul. As the paint chips away, it is revealing the sign’s former job as a night-time speed limit sign, albeit upside down (when was the last time you saw one of those in Minnesota?)

This trail was pushed by the API (American Petroleum Institute) in the 1960′s to “package” vacations for motorists around the upper midwest to get them to…wait for it…use more oil products. The governors of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois agreed to help promote and mark the route in their respective states. The route slowly faded into history until officially biting the dust in 2008.

The Iowa Department of Transportation has a more detailed history here.

The 1966 Minnesota official highway included a feature on the trail. You can view a scan of the map over at the Minnesota Digital Library here.

An upside-down view of the sign more clearly shows the “Night” 50 mph speed limit.

Seen any more remnants of this trail? Email your pics to me at deadpioneer@yahoo.com!!

New Article – Old Highway 28 at Westport

deadpioneer — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:37:08 +0000

Click the image above to see the article on Highway 28′s old route through the tiny town of Westport in rural Pope County Minnesota.

New Article – Historic St Augusta Creek Bridge

deadpioneer — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:19:26 +0000

Finally got around to posting something new, an article on a historic highway bridge near St Cloud that was bugging me to photograph it every time I passed it while driving back and forth to my friend’s farm via I-94 this summer. Click on the photo above to check it out.

Also, I’ve changed the articles section of the site a bit, consolidating all the articles on the site into one page for easier access. A map with markers for each is included for good measure.

Historic Concrete Pavement on Old 61 Revealed!!

deadpioneer — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 04:13:32 +0000

Jeff Wulke was kind enough to share the following photos of what is now Chisago County Road 30 (former MN 361, U.S. 61) between Rush City and Pine Creek, where crews have temporarily stripped away the asphalt to reveal the historic original concrete pavement from the 1920′s!! The concrete was poured back in 1927 as part of the first paved highway between the Twin Cities and Duluth, and was covered when the road was widened and rebuilt in 1954. As you can see from the photos, the old road is in remarkably good condition. This stretch was recently turned back to county authorities after remaining under state jurisdiction as State Highway 361 for many years after I-35 was built to fulfill a legal obligation dating back to 1921 to have a trunk highway passing through the city limits of Rush City, which has since been expanded to encompass I-35. Many thanks again to Jeff for the photos!!

U.S. 65 asks: “why does U.S. 61 get to have all the fun?”

deadpioneer — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 20:45:43 +0000

The first of many new articles on historic U.S. 65 is now up over at the U.S. 65 project! I’ve been sitting on quite a few photos I took last year, and I thought it was time to let U.S. 65 get out from under U.S. 61′s shadow. The first article gives a photo-tour of the old road between Albert Lea and the Iowa border.

North Shore Madness!!

deadpioneer — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:29:12 +0000

Over the last month, I’ve been adding photo-articles on the historic alignments and bridges along the North Shore Scenic Highway between Duluth and Little Marais to the U.S. 61 Project. In all, there are 22 new photo-articles to check out! The photos in the articles were taken in a two-day period back in April, 2010. See the links below:

Old Highway 61 Between Illgen City and Little Marais
Old Alignment at Illgen City
Baptism River Bridge and Highway
Old Highway at Palisade Head
Beaver River Bridges
Algoma Way
Wood Ridge Drive
Pine Bay Loop
Gitchi Gami Trail at Chapin’s Curve
Split Rock Lighthouse Overlook
Old Alignment at the Split Rock River
Gitchi Gami Trail at Gooseberry State Park
Gooseberry Falls Concourse
Old Road at the Encampment River
Gitchi Gami Trail at Silver Creek Cliff
Stewart River Bridge
French River Bridge
Talmadge River Bridge
Buchanan Historic Marker
North Shore Scenic Drive
Lester River Bridge
Old Thompson Hill Overlook

Finally! The New U.S. 61 Interactive Map is DONE!!

deadpioneer — Thu, 26 May 2011 02:48:49 +0000

After months of work and technical setbacks, I have finally finished the year-by-year data for the U.S. 61 interactive map. I have also cleaned up and updated the whole U.S. 61 section, wrapping the old historic alignment and roadside sections into one called “Articles“.

For those of you not familiar with the other “year-by-year” maps on the site, this data allows you to see the alignment and paving status of the road in any given year. Changes completed that year are also available for comparison so you can see which sections of road were bypassed or paved each year. A new feature I’ve added with this map is the “Compare-a-Year” feature, which allows you to add the alignment from another year. Finally, an “Articles” layer had been added that allows you to see the locations of all the U.S. 61 articles I’ve posted over the years.