On July 17, my article in the Sunday Lifestyles Section of the Tribune featured U.S. Highway 65 which now runs from Albert Lea to Natchez, Miss.

However, there’s another significant highway which either starts or ends in Albert Lea, depending on the direction of travel. This is U.S. Highway 69 which now has its northern end at the intersection of County Road 46 (West Main Street) and State Highway 13 near the Skyline Mall.

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 Wilson Highway, named for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) became the designation for the then fairly crude roadway from Albert Lea to Twin Lakes, Emmons and Lake Mills and Forest City, Iowa.

The name of

Wilson Highway was actually 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. The east-west roadways had even numbers, the north-south highways received odd numbers. (This system is still used for the newer interstate highways.) Some roadways became part of the federal system; others evolved into state, county and township roads. As a result, the Wilson Highway was given the designation of U.S. 69.

This highway and U.S. 65 became the major routes folks used to travel from Albert Lea to Des Moines, Iowa. Mileage was about the same and both highways had their positive points for motorists and truck drivers. Now the most direct and quickest way to travel to Des Moines is on I-35 which is routed somewhat between these older two-lane roadways.

At the present time it’s a little difficult to use a map or atlas to trace the route of U.S. 69 as it still goes south to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. This wasn’t the situation about five decades ago. Before the advent of the interstate highways, the mostly two-lane roads like U.S. 69, U.S. 65 and U.S. 16 had a more predominate part on the

maps and atlases. I found proof for this on an old Phillips 66 road map for the Central United States issued in the early 1950s.

Now, with this mind, here’s the present routing for U.S.. 69 to the south. I might add that there have been some changes with this highway’s routing through the years.

As I’ve already indicated, this highway goes through Ames to Des Moines. From Des Moines to south of Indianola, Iowa, U.S. 69 and U.S. 65 share the same roadway. Then from Osceola, Iowa , to Kansas City, Mo., this highway runs parallel to I-35. After going through the Kansas City metro area, U.S. 69 goes almost straight south on a route not too far from the eastern border of Kansas through Fort Scott and Pittsburg to Miami, Okla.

The next large city on the U.S .69 route in Oklahoma is a locality made fairly famous by the song,

&uot;I’m an Okkie (or Oakie ) from Muskogee.&uot; After bypassing McAlester, Okla., this highway crosses the Red River into Texas north of Denison.

Trying to trace this highway across the east part of Texas is an interesting challenge on today’s maps and atlases. Anyway, U.S. 69 goes south through Greenville, Tyler and Lufkin, Texas. The next to last large city on this highway is Beaumont, Texas. The south end of U.S. 69 which starts in Albert Lea is in Port Arthur, Texas.

Right about here let’s switch the subject and honor a very nice gentleman who died about a week ago. His name was Ansel Thostenson of

Manchester Township. As his obituary in the

Aug. 26 issue stated, &uot;He was a lifelong farmer who especially loved horses and farmed with them until his retirement in 1997.&uot; In fact, he was one of the last links, if not the last link, with farming life of another era.

(Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears each Friday.)