HWY

 

   The town of Roseau 15 miles north of Wannaska is all in a clutter these days. Minnesota State Highway 11 which runs east-west just north of downtown Roseau is being torn up and widened this summer. We knew this was coming. The first indication came last year when rumors spread that the stoplight at Hwy 11 and Main Street was to be permanently removed. This was the only light in the entire county when we moved to Wannaska fifty years ago.  Two more lights have been added over the years as the town spread out. It seemed crazy that the light at 11 and Main would be taken out. At the meeting to get local input, state officials listened politely to the citizens who said they wanted the light to stay. The highway is being widened just to the point where a light there is against the law. "Then the law is an idiot," said a citizen.

   Highway 11 is now torn up from the intersection with State Highway 89 (the Wannaska Road) on the west to just past the bridge over the Roseau River, about a half a mile to the east. Center Street, which parallels 11 and which used to be a quiet street, is now the main thoroughfare through town. Anyone trying to get between the south or north sides of town must make a detour around the construction. 

   If Highway 11 was a US rather than a state highway, the government would probably be building a bypass around the town. Then Roseau could become a quiet backwater with Alt Highway 11 undisturbed. Fifty years ago when we lived in St. Paul and made frequent trips to Roseau, we had to drive through several small towns along US Highway 10. In the meantime they've all had bypasses built around them. None of them became any more or less of a backwater than they were before they were bypassed, and we can now get to the Twin Cities in five and a half hours instead of six.

   In 1919 Major Dwight Eisenhower was part of a convoy of 300 soldiers and officers and 81 vehicles that traveled from Washington DC to San Francisco. The object of the convoy was to find out if troops could be moved quickly across the country in case of an attack on the west coast. It took the convoy  62 days to cross the country at an average speed of a little under six mph. Paved roads west of Missouri were non-existent until the convoy reached California. 

   Eisenhower never forgot his trip. He described his experience as a young man as a trip through "darkest America,” with many of the roads in the West being " a succession of dust, ruts, pits and holes." As president, Eisenhower pushed for the standardization and expansion of our present Interstate Highway System which is named in his honor.

   I love freeways when I'm in a hurry, but they're boring. It's much more interesting to take the back roads. I remember driving across Ireland once between Dublin in the east and Galway on the west coast, a journey of 129 miles. We were on the main highway but it was only two lanes wide and it went through every little town. As we came into one town, there was a car blocking our path as the driver filled his gas tank. The pump was conveniently located right on the highway. This would be like having gas pumps along I-94 between St. Cloud and Minneapolis. But traffic was light on the road to Galway that day. Where was everyone, I wondered. Perhaps at the big Mussel Festival in Galway town. The festival is an event which has much in common with our own Roseau County Fair,  though the Festival lacks our demolition derby, more’s the pity. 

All torn up and no place to go