Wandering south on the Wilson Highway

Staff

Published Sunday, February 29, 2004

By Ed Shannon, Tribune feature writer

Traveling south from Albert Lea to Emmons and on south into Winnebago County, Iowa, was a quite a challenge during the first four decades of the last century.

This was the era of horse-drawn vehicles, the evolving automobiles and trucks, and some mighty miserable roadways.

Those dirt and gravel country roads were dusty when it was dry, muddy and sometimes impassible when it rained, and almost impossible for traveling on many days when it was wintertime.

In fact, the best way to travel on the most direct route between Albert Lea and Emmons and on into Iowa during those four decades was in a passenger train on the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad.

Roadways between most localities weren't too well marked up to about 1920. Yet, they were well known to area residents and confusing to strangers. This was when guidance for travelers could be something like this:

"Go north about two miles to the place with a big stone house and a red barn, turn right and go about a mile, then turn left at the tee in front of the woods, watch out for the puddle before the bridge, go maybe two or three crossroads, then stop somewhere to ask for more help."

By the 1920s the decision was made to designate roads with names and use signs or symbols to indicate the proper routes of travel. Thus, the Jefferson Highway became the title for the main north-south highway through Albert Lea from Mason City, Iowa, to Owatonna. (This highway actually started in Winnepeg, Canada, and ended in New Orleans. It was 2,000 miles long and had the motto of "Pine to Palm.") The Wilson Highway, named for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), was the route from Albert Lea to Twin Lakes, Emmons and Lake Mills and Forest City, Iowa.

The name of Wilson Highway was registered on Sept. 13, 1918, and amended June 24, 1920. It started near the Iowa/Missouri line south of Bedford and ran north for 273 miles through Des Moines and Ames to Emmons. A few years later the highway route was extended to Albert Lea.

A decade later the highways were given official numbers. Some roadways became part of the federal interstate system; others were state, county and township roads. As a result, the Jefferson Highway became U.S. 65, and the Wilson Highway was given the designation

of U.S. 69.

There's an old saying based on the concept that a crow will fly the most direct route from one place to another. For travelers on the Wilson Highway and the earlier years of U.S. 69, "as the crow flies" certainly didn't apply to the route between Albert Lea and Emmons. What motorists had for a rudimentary highway to Emmons during the first four decades of the 20th century were several marked routes, including one with three doglegs.

A 1935 Freeborn County Plat Book shows U.S. 69 as starting or ending (depending

on the direction

of travel) on Albert Lea's Broadway Avenue in the city's center. Then the highway went south on Broadway and beyond the city limits on 750th Avenue (County Road 18) into Freeman Township.

At the intersection with what's now 150th Street (County Road 13) came a right turn to the west with the first dogleg on U.S. 69.

Just west of Lunder Lutheran Church was a left turn on 735th Avenue, then a right on what's designated as 147th Street, followed by a left on 728th Avenue into the community of Twin Lakes. As a part of this rather involved dogleg was a crossing over the tracks of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad near the boundary of Nunda Township.

After going through Twin Lakes, U.S. 69 crossed the railroad tracks again and proceeded to the south on what's now 720th Avenue (County Road 16) to the State Line Road. At this

point was a right turn to the west for the third dogleg on what was then two miles of glorified country road to Emmons.

On this particular part of the old highway was a rather unusual short jog into Iowa which still exists. The state's boundary is straight; however, a small portion of State Line Lake extends into Iowa. Thus, the roadway curves around the south end of the lake for a hundred yards or more into Iowa and back into Minnesota.

U.S. 69 went through Emmons on the State Line Road and further west on County Road 4 past the creamery, cemetery and Lime Creek Lutheran Church for about two miles before turning south into Iowa on the way to Lake Mills.

By 1940 the decision was made to reroute U.S. 69 on a more direct roadway from the west side of Albert Lea to Twin Lakes and Emmons. This new route just happened to be next to the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad tracks to these two communities. As a result, Twin Lakes and Emmons finally had their new U.S. 69 paved highway by September 1941.

(Contact Ed Shannon at ed.shannon@albertleatribune.com or call 379-3434.)

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