For decades, the Iowa Highway Commission wanted to get rid of it.
For decades, residents of southern Page County begged the state to pave it.
Iowa Highway 999 was both an offshoot of and substitute for Iowa Highway 333, and you can’t talk about one without the other.
IA 999 is the granddaddy of the entire 900-series of secret routes, pre-dating them by a long time. Its mere existence was obscured so much that even today, its exact history has some open questions. (Some of those questions might get more light through an intensive study of microfilmed archives, but I’m not in a great position to do that at the moment.)
Through digitized primary sources, a sprinkling of original materials, and a series of THIRTEEN MAPS, this week I’ll be delving into the highest-numbered route ever conceived in the state of Iowa.
I’d tell you to buckle your seatbelt, but where — more precisely, when — we’re going, those haven’t been put into widespread use yet.
(Made live slightly late. — Ed.)