The 1931 Iowa highway map includes an explosion of highway numbers across the state, in what I call the First Great Commissioning. Many of the routes that died in either 1980 or 2003 trace their history to this time. But one does not: IA 196. It was absent from the map because the Highway Commission expected it to be a spur to Williams from a changed US 20. As the Webster City Daily Freeman-Journal reported September 3, 1930:
It is reported a saving estimated at $300,000 can be made by running straight east from No. 20 as now paved, short distance south of Williams. It is also cited the new route will enable the commission to cut out two railroad crossings and the construction and maintenance of two bridges.
But it never happened, because the people of Alden and Williams rose up in protest. They had been assured that 20 would run through their towns, the FJ said. They successfully prevented changing 20 to run east from Blairsburg to US 65. It would not be until 1991, as part of plans to four-lane 20 across Iowa, that Alden would lose its place along the federal route. The non-change also meant a lovely arch bridge would be built across the Iowa River in Iowa Falls.
The IA 196 designation, instead, was placed in Sac County in 1935 when US 71 was routed to run south of Early, only to be replaced by 71 eight decades later.
