Minnesota's Roads
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 43° 30.941 W 093° 21.192
15T E 471453 N 4818143
Historical marker commemorating the history of Minnesota road constuction. This marker is located at a rest area on I-35 north, just north of the Iowa-Minnesota border.
Waymark Code: WMHB5
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 07/14/2006
Views: 46
Minnesota's Roads
" 'A perfect highway is a thing of beauty and joy forever' enthused a speaker at
Minnesota's first 'Good Roads' convetion in 1893. 'It blesses every home by
which it passes.'
Early in the 1890s, even before the automobile age, bicycling Minnesotans and
those interested in improved mail delivery and farm marketing were clamoring for
better roads. But Minnesota's constitution, adopted with statehood in 1858,
expressly prohibited the state from engaging in 'works of internal improvement.'
The few roads of that era were of secondary importance to the river highways
that had carried most early settlers into the region and after 1865 attention
was focused on the fast-growning railroad and streecar systems. Counties and
townships built the few roads and bridges that there residents petitioned for,
financed by property taxes and a requirement that all able-bodied men of 21 to
50 years of age work three days each year on the roads.
It was the automobile that finally brought good roads to Minnesota. In 1902
Minneapolis recorded its first automobile speeding arrest, and a new law the
following year required autos to be licensed by the state boiler inspectors. By
1909, 7,000 cars and 4,000 motorcycles were registered, but road construction
lagged until 1920, when there were over 330,000 licensed vehicles and a
constitutional amendment was finally passed to 'get Minnesota out of the mud.'
It allowed the state to construct a trunk highway system of 70 numbered routes
financed by vehicle taxes. Today's I-35 follows portions of the route of
Minnesota Constitutional Road Number 1 from Albert Lea to Duluth." ~ marker text