(July 1, 1920-December 31, 1968)

• In 1920, they knew it as: The cross-state Hawkeye Highway, from Sioux City to Dubuque via Le Mars, Cherokee, Fort Dodge, and Waterloo, registered June 29, 1917 (15 counties, the most of any 1920 route)
• As printed in Huebinger's Map and Guide for Hawkeye Highway, "a dragged road across Iowa from Dubuque to Sioux City"
• We know it as: US 75, IA 3, IA 7, and US 20 (pre-freeway)
• In 1924, IA 22 (the north-south highway) was cut in the overlap from Sioux City to Le Mars, rather than 5. The Hawkeye Highway's pull was that strong.
• Let's get granular:
• In Sioux City: 4th Street (if continued west), Court Street, 27th Street, Floyd Boulevard, Leeds Road, northbound lanes of present US 75
• Starting about a mile north of Hinton, close to but not parallel to the railroad tracks, running into vacated extension of Jade Avenue, then Ideal Road
• In Merrill: Webster, 5th, and Main streets, then US 75 (northbound lanes)
• In Le Mars: C38, Lincoln Avenue, Lincoln Street, 6th St SW, Central Avenue, Plymouth Street, 6th Avenue NE
• Le Mars to Storm Lake: IA 3, L36, C38, IA 3, IA 7; 9th, Main, and 2nd streets in Aurelia; Pitcher Drive, Y Avenue, 580th Street; 1st, Main, and 2nd streets in Alta; IA 7
• Storm Lake: IA 7, Lake Street, Lakeshore Drive
• Huebinger's Hawkeye ran on Vestal Street, 6th Street, Lake Street, 3rd Street (broken by present IA 7) and Memorial Road. However, the IHC changed the alignment on July 2, 1920, precipitating a petition of opposition (Storm Lake Register, July 16).
• Storm Lake to Pomeroy: 615th Street, 140th Avenue, 620th Street, 170th Avenue, IA 7, 3rd Street in Newell, 630th Street, N28, IA 7, Main Street in Fonda, D11
• Pomeroy: 1st, Ontario, Harrison streets
• Removal of the route through downtown Pomeroy came on July 8, 1920, just as the highways were being signed.
• Pomeroy to Fort Dodge: 170th Street; Main, 2nd, and Hamilton streets in Manson; 180th Street, Easter Avenue, IA 7
• Fort Dodge: 3rd Avenue NW, 2nd Street NW, now-gone bridge extending from Amvets Drive, Hawkeye Avenue, 5th Avenue N, 3rd Street N, Central Avenue, 12th Street, 5th Avenue S
• Fort Dodge to Williams: D20, Chase Avenue, 221st Street, IA 17, D20, 2nd Street, D25
• Ironically, the part of IA 17 that remains overlapped with old 20 is a later alignment. The double railroad crossings to bypass Highview were eliminated in 1921. The Highview elevator is prominent on the landscape today.
• Not including the Overpass Drive segment on the west side of Webster City.
• Huebinger's route from Duncombe through Webster City had been 210th Street, 212th Street, Des Moines Street, Bank Street, Dubuque Street, Bell Avenue, and High Street. This was changed probably sometime around 1913, since it's not on the 1914 county map.
• Huebinger's route from Blairsburg to Williams was similarly dropped by 1919: Kellogg Avenue and 2nd Street in Blairsburg, 212th Street, Saratoga Avenue, 210th Street
• Williams to Ackley: 210th Street/150th Street, CC Avenue, 140th Street, S27, Main Street in Alden, D15, D20, Washington Avenue, Fremont Street, D15
• Huebinger's guide went through the extinct map dot of Wilke; nothing is left there but hog confinements.
• There's another 1910s change between Alden and Iowa Falls; was D15, G Avenue, 125th Street, I Avenue, 115th Street, S33, Siloam Avenue, River Street, North Street, and Main Street
• Ackley: Franklin, Main, and Butler streets
• The connection between Butler and now-IA 57 was not severed until 2013.
• Ackley to Parkersburg: IA 57, with 4th and Howard streets on the east side of Aplington and squared-off corner at Jay Avenue
• Parkersburg: Miners, Railroad, and 3rd streets
• Confirmed beyond a doubt in the Parkersburg Eclipse of January 24, 1929, because there was a city referendum on whether US 20 should run on 3rd (through downtown) or 6th ("the edge of town"). But I couldn't find the results, the Eclipse said the vote was "misunderstood" (February 7), and the present route of IA 57 came into effect either way.
• Parkersburg to Cedar Falls: IA 57
• Cedar Falls/Waterloo: 1st Street, Franklin Street, 7th Street, Main Street, 13th Street, Waterloo Road, Rainbow Drive (broken at US 218 freeway), Whitney Street, Westfield Avenue, McKinley Street, Miles Street, Commercial Street, 5th Street, Independence Avenue
• Huebinger used Falls Avenue, but Rainbow Drive was bricked in 1920, making that the primary road. The alignment would flip back in 1930.
• ...when Falls Avenue was part of US 218, because the IHC flipped the highways between downtown Waterloo and downtown Cedar Falls in 1926.
  
• Huebinger used 4th Street across the Cedar River. There was a bit of a jog of 4th where the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center is. The northwest corner of 4th and Sycamore was tagged as a bank in 1912 but 18 months later was the site of Waterloo's most prominent downtown structure, the Black's Building.
• Waterloo to IA 38: IA 281, V51, D20, V62, D22
  
• A concrete curve from 1929 remains at the D22/V62 intersection in Jesup and was part of US 20 for three decades.
• Without bending around the railroad near Winthrop. Plans to fix that were made as early as 1922 but it wasn't paved until 1929.
• IA 38 to Dubuque: D22, 253rd Avenue, 212th Street, Manchester Avenue (hint!), X35, D22, vacated road through ethanol plant, Vine Road, X49, 1st Avenue, 4th Street SE, 2nd Avenue SE, Olde Hawkeye Road, US 20 (westbound lanes), Sullivan Road, Olde Castle Road, Old Highway Road
  
• Dyersville imposed a number grid on its street system sometime after 1938. Main Street became 1st Avenue and Victoria Street became 2nd Avenue.
• Dubuque: US 20, Crescent Ridge, Starlite Drive, Cedar Cross Road, vacated road aligned with the Hy-Vee Gas Station and parking lot of the strip mall next door (then it jumps across present 20), University Avenue, Loras Boulevard, Locust Street, 4th Street, High Bridge
• The west entrance to Wal-Mart is fairly close to the original line for Dodge Street, and a scrap remains today coming in from the east.
• From the intersection of University and Loras, Huebinger's route was University Avenue (then named Delhi Road), Delhi Street, University Avenue (then named Julien Avenue), 8th Street, and Main Street, ending at the Hotel Julien Dubuque.
• The Loras Boulevard alignment, if not in use by 1920, was in use by 1932, when US 20's route was changed to use Asbury Road, St. Ambrose Street, Clarke Drive (then named Seminary Street), and Locust Street into downtown. This change, at least from a 21st-century and/or flat-map perspective, makes little sense (EB 20 on Asbury Road would be going north-northwest) other than to relieve traffic right by Loras College and perhaps avoid left turns from Locust onto Loras (where US 61 turned east to head to the Eagle Point Bridge).
• About half of 4th Street between US 61/151 and the Shot Tower remained intact until 2003. The easternmost part is now Star Brewery Drive.
• Related routes:
• US 75: Replacement for 5 between Sioux City and Le Mars
• IA 3: Replacement for 5 between Le Mars and IA 7
• IA 7: Replacement for 5 in Great Renumbering (the last remaining segment)
• US 20: Replacement for 5 east of Fort Dodge
• IA 360: Consolation prize for Newell after 5 was paved there
• IA 57: Replacement for US 20 between US 65 and US 218, in two portions
• IA 281: East-west segment from Waterloo to V51, bypassed in 1958
• IA 416: Originally covering the entire route from Dyersville to Dubuque when the route was straightened to the south in 1959, later reduced to a spur to Centralia
• Spur to Farley was IA 418, but then dropped, with a tiny remnant numbered IA 967
  
• The segment east of Dyersville was IA 420 for eight years, then unsigned IA 968 (I)
• The spur to Centralia became unsigned IA 966 for unknown reasons.
• Subsequent replacements as US 20 was four-laned:
• IA 928: old 20 from Fort Dodge to north of Williams
• IA 941 (IV): old 20 from north of Williams to Iowa Falls
• IA 939 (II): old 20 from Raymond to IA 187; signed 1986-2003 from Jesup eastward
• IA 947 (I): old 20 from IA 38 to IA 136
• IA 977 (unsigned): old IA 3 east of US 59 in Cherokee
  
• IA 997 (unsigned): old IA 5 on 3rd Avenue NW in northwest Fort Dodge
• See also: Sioux City Highway Chronology, Fort Dodge Highway Chronology, Waterloo/Cedar Falls Highway Chronology, Dubuque Highway Chronology
  

WEST End(?): Missouri River (Combination Bridge), Sioux City, Woodbury County

The 1925 inset, the earliest one, marked IA 34 at the river, but would 5 stop short of the state line?

WEST End(?): IA 12/IA 23/IA 34, now Court St. at 4th St., Sioux City, Woodbury County

Facing northeast-ish (10/2/20)

If IA 5 didn't go to the Combination Bridge, the other option would be Court Street at 4th Street, where it met the east-west highways. Today, this is the heart of the 4th Street Historic District (PDF guide here). From this corner, to the left would have been IA 5 and IA 12 and probably IA 29 too, with 12/29 splitting off a block north. Ahead would have been IA 12, IA 23, and IA 34, which stayed together to the intersection of Correctionville Road and Fairmount Street. Behind, IA 23/34 (and 5, if it went to the state line) went to the intersection of 4th Street and Pearl Street, where they split.

Mural at northwest corner of 4th and Court (10/2/20)

Along the route

Facing west on 5, later US 20, later IA 939, now D22 (6/14/11)

This photo somewhat shows the bend to stay south of the railroad, the only deviation from the section line between Raymond and IA 13.

EAST End: Illinois state line (High/Wagon Bridge), Dubuque IA/East Dubuque IL, Dubuque County IA/Jo Daviess County IL

Facing east (8/9/07)

Originally, the route exited Dubuque on 4th Street, a bit north of Dodge, which connected to a bridge originally built in 1887, beating out the Ak-Sar-Ben bridge by one year as the oldest state-line bridge used for highways in Iowa. Dubuque's new riverwalk has informative panels about the Wagon Bridge and the Shot Tower near the railroad bridge.

Page created 6/22/20; last updated 1/11/21

Back to index