(July 1, 1920-December 31, 1968)
- In 1920, they knew it as: Segments of the Custer Battlefield Highway and Daniel Boone Trail (4 counties)
- Only six numbers above 25 hit four-plus counties: 35, 40, 58, 59, 60, and 90.
- We know it as: IA 17 from Madrid to Goldfield, and the general 1980-2003 corridor of IA 415 in Polk County
- Let's get granular:
- 6th Avenue in Des Moines, which becomes NW 6th Drive north of Aurora Avenue. (I still have no explanation why the north-south 2nd, 5th, and 6th are avenues while the rest are streets.)
- NW 16th Street (because Ankeny has kept the Polk County numbers west of NW 6th Drive and south of IA 415), and the short frontage road stub to the north, then the contour of the trail on the east side of Irvinedale Drive between Prairie Trail Parkway and SW 18th Street
- SW Irvinedale Drive, NW Polk City Drive, IA 415, NW Lake Drive, IA 415, NW 55th Street/S 14th Street (annexed by Polk City), an abandoned road through the Big Creek Ponding Area (see the IA 415 page for more), and Broadway Street in Polk City
- Old IA 415, which was County Road R6F before 1980 (though not signed), and is now just NW Madrid Drive
- IA 17 except for:
- 6th, State, and 2nd streets in Madrid, until a railroad overpass was built in 1935
- 260th Street, Quill Avenue, Cpl. Roger Snedden Drive, E41, R Avenue, and 205th Street, including a 3-mile overlap with the original Lincoln Highway
- Briggs Woods Trail, which itself is a straightened version of what was there before 1925. Its modification caused great consternation in the Webster City Daily News, which said, "Two fairly new culverts built within the last few years, of concrete, at big expense, would be cast as 'rubbish for the void' in the proposed road change..." (July 12, 1921)
- Millards Lane (south of US 20) and Edgewood Drive (north of US 20), which remained part of the route until construction of the US 20 freeway
- Superior Street and 2nd Street in Webster City (17's pre-freeway alignment), not including the overpass on the west side
- D20 except for the mile that IA 17 uses today; instead, it had a double railroad crossing and used 221st Street on the south. It was bypassed by the end of 1922.
- D18/190th Street, Doolan Avenue, and 160th/340th Street
- A Boone River crossing in line with 310th Street, and then a dirt road north
- Braden Avenue and SW 9th Street (or 10th?) on the south side of Eagle Grove
- NW 10th Street, then Davis Avenue between Eagle Grove and Goldfield
- Points of interest:
- After 60 was extended north to Wesley and then south along the entire route that became IA 5 in the Great Renumbering, it was Iowa's longest north-south state highway.
- About 25 miles of the route between old US 30 and near Webster City were not paved until 1978/1980, one of the last two significant stretches in Iowa to be upgraded from bituminous/"dustless" roads.
- Related routes:
- IA 6 (II), from Des Moines to the Missouri state line, which 60 was extended along when US 6 arrived in 1931
- IA 5 (II), from Des Moines to the Missouri state line, when 60 was broken up in the Great Renumbering of 1969
- The Carlisle-Albia corridor via Knoxville has carried four numbers: 17, 6, 60, and 5.
- IA 17 (II), from Granger to US 18, when 60 was broken up in the Great Renumbering of 1969
- IA 46 (III), E University Avenue to E Army Post Road, after 60 was moved onto SE 14th Street in 1953
- IA 415, assigned to 60 between the north side of Des Moines and about Madrid when IA 60 was routed onto a road along/near the Dallas/Polk county line, I-35/80, and Army Post Road in 1959
- IA 915 (II), NW Polk City Drive and NW Lake Drive between the John Deere Des Moines Works and an arm of Saylorville Lake
- See also: Jason Hancock's Highways of Des Moines
NORTH End: IA 10, now Davis Ave. at IA 3, Goldfield, Wright County
At this intersection, IA 10 went north on Main Street and then out on C32. Here's where I would have put in a plug for the Goldfield Cheese Mart a block away. It marked 50 years in 2018, but closed sometime in 2019.
SOUTH End: IA 1/IA 2/IA 7/IA 15/IA 17, now 6th Ave. at Grand Ave., Des Moines, Polk County
That's five, count 'em FIVE, primary roads on the main thoroughfare between downtown and the State Capitol. Just a block west, at the intersection of 7th and Grand, is where IA 1/15 went south and IA 7 split off northwest (after 1924 at least). Between 6th and 7th is Ruan Center, Iowa's tallest building from 1975 to 1991.
Page created 3/4/20; last updated 5/11/22