Finally got around to posting something new, an article on a historic highway bridge near St Cloud that was bugging me to photograph it every time I passed it while driving back and forth to my friend’s farm via I-94 this summer. Click on the photo above to check it out.
Also, I’ve changed the articles section of the site a bit, consolidating all the articles on the site into one page for easier access. A map with markers for each is included for good measure.
Jeff Wulke was kind enough to share the following photos of what is now Chisago County Road 30 (former MN 361, U.S. 61) between Rush City and Pine Creek, where crews have temporarily stripped away the asphalt to reveal the historic original concrete pavement from the 1920’s!! The concrete was poured back in 1927 as part of the first paved highway between the Twin Cities and Duluth, and was covered when the road was widened and rebuilt in 1954. As you can see from the photos, the old road is in remarkably good condition. This stretch was recently turned back to county authorities after remaining under state jurisdiction as State Highway 361 for many years after I-35 was built to fulfill a legal obligation dating back to 1921 to have a trunk highway passing through the city limits of Rush City, which has since been expanded to encompass I-35. Many thanks again to Jeff for the photos!!
The first of many new articles on historic U.S. 65 is now up over at the U.S. 65 project! I’ve been sitting on quite a few photos I took last year, and I thought it was time to let U.S. 65 get out from under U.S. 61’s shadow. The first article gives a photo-tour of the old road between Albert Lea and the Iowa border.
Over the last month, I’ve been adding photo-articles on the historic alignments and bridges along the North Shore Scenic Highway between Duluth and Little Marais to the U.S. 61 Project. In all, there are 22 new photo-articles to check out! The photos in the articles were taken in a two-day period back in April, 2010. See the links below:
After months of work and technical setbacks, I have finally finished the year-by-year data for the U.S. 61 interactive map. I have also cleaned up and updated the whole U.S. 61 section, wrapping the old historic alignment and roadside sections into one called “Articles“.
For those of you not familiar with the other “year-by-year” maps on the site, this data allows you to see the alignment and paving status of the road in any given year. Changes completed that year are also available for comparison so you can see which sections of road were bypassed or paved each year. A new feature I’ve added with this map is the “Compare-a-Year” feature, which allows you to add the alignment from another year. Finally, an “Articles” layer had been added that allows you to see the locations of all the U.S. 61 articles I’ve posted over the years.
Hello, haven’t updated the blog in awhile, but wanted to let anyone who still checks it what’s going on with the site right now.
About a month ago, I added a new interactive map displaying the history of U.S. 52’s route through Minnesota. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, so I am in the process of trying to get the maps on the older U.S. Highway projects (U.S. 61, 65, 8, and 16) up to the same standard. Its been slow going, however. I’m plugging away on U.S. 61 first, but I don’t expect it to be done for a couple more months. The other routes will follow.
In other news, I’ve been continually going through all of my old highway photos from the past 6 years and uploading them to Flickr (I love Flickr’s geotagging and mapping feature). The photo stream will be continually updated, and will be the first place photos from my highway expeditions show up. The photostream is accessible directly from the main page at deadpioneer.com.
Just finished a major update to the U.S. 61 section of the page to bring it up the snuff with the new routes being added. I also threw in a couple of brand new articles on old alignments along the north shore for good measure (click on the sample photos below to see them).
Back in April I undertook my first “overnight” expedition, photographing old alignments along the north shore for two days, with a night out in Two Harbors in-between (watch out for those $1 PBR’s, they’ll kill ya!) I have a ton of photos and articles to add in the next couple of months, so rest assured, these two are just the tip of the iceberg!
I am happy to report that the new U.S. 8 page is up and running! Check it out!
In other news, the melting snow has me itching to get back on the road and get some more photos to add to the page. I am hoping to implement a new way to share these photos, so keep your eyes peeled for more big updates in the next few weeks.
After several months of work, I finally have the new U.S. 65 pages ready for public consumption! I used a very different approach than I did with the U.S. 61 project. This time, the pages are built around a couple of dynamic maps created using KML and the Google Maps API that allow you to freely explore the historic route without having to wade through pages of narrative. The project includes a normal map showing the surviving historic alignments, and a new feature that allows you to see U.S. 65’s route in a given year!
Comments? Corrections? Questions?: Email Me At: andrew@deadpioneer.com
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