Category Archives: 1920 Highway Sytem

Jun 29

Iowa’s 1920 highway system: IA 48, a Highway of Theseus

August 23, 2019: The current Essex school, which opened in 1970, is at the southwest corner of town. A vacated portion of original IA 48, an extension of South Avenue, ran through part of the building’s footprint and across home … Continue reading

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Nov 15

Iowa’s 1920 highway system: The Great Truncation

September 7, 2006: IA 128 in Clayton County is an orphan segment of IA 56 created in November 1924. In the 1920 highway system, only one non-spur route (IA 29 in Plymouth County) had an endpoint that was not in … Continue reading

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Jul 16

A new (old) wrinkle in Vinton’s highways

Vinton is a larger town than you might think. By that, I mean it has a population above 5,000, but because the highways are only in the west and middle, much of it is residential areas where travelers don’t go. … Continue reading

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Jun 23

Early Centerville continues to vex me

Pinning down early highways in places that fall in the “large town” category is often difficult. Records are sparse and, because the state was not in charge of routes within city limits until later, county maps omit detail and city … Continue reading

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Apr 09

Iowa’s 1920 Highway System: The short and winding road

Iowa Highway Commission 1919 map. Notice the absence of a primary road southeast of Waukon and the town of “North McGregor,” which did not become Marquette until March 29, 1920. IA 51 has never been outside of Allamakee County, but … Continue reading

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Feb 08

Iowa’s 1920 Highway System: County seat to non-county-seat

April 18, 2006: Even when there wasn’t a river highway between Dubuque and Davenport, IA 62 came to Bellevue. This next batch of routes is of small to medium length, covering only two counties tops. One end was in a … Continue reading

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Jan 20

IA 88: The road that torqued off a Legislature

In 1920, IA 88 was a harmless little highway, between the tiny town of Altoona and the tinier town of Bondurant, slightly lengthened a year later. In 1935, it was nothing less than the first piece of a giant conspiracy, … Continue reading

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Nov 11

Iowa’s 1920 Highway System: Plymouth County

July 17, 2020: The loneliest intersection of 1920. IA 29 ended here; IA 27 went east and west. Western Iowa had nearly all of the primary numbers, save for 28, in the 26-through-37 span. As far as I know, it … Continue reading

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Nov 06

Label-o-matic

Labels are important when creating maps. This is an obvious truth, but I have a habit of missing the forest for the trees. Thus, when I created highway chronologies, I didn’t really consider the idea that my maps could be … Continue reading

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Oct 06

Iowa’s 1920 highway system: Waiting for a promotion

Here are the smaller routes that, in 1926, did NOT get included in the new federal highway system, but were incorporated into it in the next 15 years. IA 25, Winterset to Adel, was a middleman between two long north-south … Continue reading

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