U.S. Route 61

U.S. Route 61 is the official designation for a United States highway that once ran from New Orleans to Duluth, Minnesota all the way to the Canadian border. It was an important north-south connection in the days before the interstate highway system. Many southerners, particularly black southerners, travelled north along Highway 61 to go to St. Louis. (It did not run to Chicago, as often presumed by some fledgling blues aficionados).

Originally 1,714 miles (2,758 km) long, the road has been shortened to 1400 miles (2,253 km) ending in Wyoming, Minnesota. Minnesota State Highway 61 runs to the Canadian border; then the highway continues to Thunder Bay, Ontario as Ontario provincial highway 61.

The Blues Highway

The road is also known as the Blues Highway, because it runs through the Mississippi Delta country which was an important source of blues music. Son Thomas ("Highway 61"), Mississippi Fred McDowell ("61 Highway") and Jay Farrar of Son Volt ("Afterglow 61") all wrote songs about it, and many Mississippians, such as Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley took the blues to Chicago along the route.

The junction of Highway 61 and Highway 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi is designated as the famous crossroads where — according to legend — Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for mastery of the blues. However, there is no proof it is the site. Several miles north is another junction where the two highways diverge again; between the junctions the two Highways share the route. It has never been confirmed as the place Johnson meant. If the crossroads in the song was ever anything other than a metaphor, it could have been any intersection in that part of Mississippi, or the world.

Like Route 66 in the Western U.S., the iconic Highway 61 sign is so strongly identified with the Clarksdale area that it is used to market different products and services, including the locally based Covenant Bank.

Blues singer Bessie Smith died in an automobile accident on Highway 61. Ike Turner's "Delta Cats" drove up Highway 61 to Memphis to record "Rocket 88", one of the first rock and roll records. Elvis Presley grew up in housing projects along it and Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot in a motel on Highway 61. Bob Dylan was born along a stretch of Highway 61, in Duluth, Minnesota. Some of these connections led Bob Dylan to commemorate the highway in the title song of his album Highway 61 Revisited. More recently, in March of 2006 Hilary and Holly Williams - daughters of Hank Williams Jr. - were seriously injured in a one car accident on Highway 61 near Dundee, Mississippi.

Recent activity

Iowa

Starting in the early 1980's, U.S. Highway 61 between Davenport and Dubuque was rebuilt as a four-lane highway. The first link, a 19-mile stretch between Davenport and De Witt, was finished in 1982; a bypass around De Witt, which multiplexed U.S. Highway 30, was in use starting in November 1975. Subsequent links were completed to Maquoketa (in 1996) and finally to Dubuque in 1999. When the final link was completed, Dubuque finally had a direct four-lane connection to Interstate 80.

In 1983, two multi-lane one-way routes were designated through Davenport starting at the northern city limits. Southbound traffic used the newly constructed Welcome Way until it merges with Harrison Street just north of 35th Street; northbound traffic use Brady Street (which had been a two-way, four-lane street). Other two-way stretches of the highway through Davenport have four (or more) lanes.

A 7.5-mile bypass around Muscatine, Iowa was opened in 1984, but other upgrades on the stretch south of Davenport would not happen for another decade. The changes came as follows:

1996 – The completion of a 4-mile, four-lane stretch between Blue Grass and Interstate 280 in Davenport.
November 2000 — A 14-mile stretch between Blue Grass and the Muscatine bypass was opened.
May 2001 — A 3-mile bypass around Blue Grass.
July 2002 — A 7 1/2-mile stretch, from the Muscatine bypass to the southern tip of Muscatine, just north of Letts.

The final stretch completed a continuous multi-laned link between Dickeyville, Wisconsin south to Letts, Iowa. The highway joins with U.S. Highway 151 about five miles south of Dubuque, where the two highways share a route until Dickeyville.

The 61 Drive In, one of the few Drive-in theaters left in the nation, is located along Highway 61. The theater is located about five miles (8 km) south of Maquoketa, Iowa, near Iowa exit 153 (the Delmar/Lost Nation exit).

Missouri

Recent and future activity includes:

The ongoing construction to upgrade U.S. 61 (where it is multiplexed with U.S. 40) to a controlled-access freewayThe current freeway ends at Missouri Highway K just west of Weldon Spring, Missouri and the construction will upgrade U.S. 61 to a freeway to Interstate 70 at Wentzville, Missouri. When construction is finished, this freeway also will be signed as Interstate 64[http://www.modot.org/stlouis/major_projects/route4061.htm.
A potential future bypass to U.S. 61, which diverts eastward from near Wayland, Missouri to Keokuk, Iowa, features a newly constructed bridge across the Des Moines River between Missouri and Iowa. This bridge has 2 lanes in each direction and is toll-free. The bridge that it replaces, only slightly downriver, had one lane of travel in each direction and was a tollbridge.
U.S. 61 between Wentzville, Missouri and Wayland, Missouri are planned to be gradually widened and upgraded to expressway status ^*." target="_blank" >It is unclear whether the entire length will ever be upgraded to freeway status, although it is expected that the entire highway will be 4 lanes wide to the Missouri-Iowa border by 2008. As of 2006, the route is expected only to be a freeway as bypasses around towns. This route will eventually form a part of a more direct route from Saint Louis, Missouri to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Waterloo, Iowa to Saint Paul, Minnesota as part of the Avenue of the Saints [http://www.modot.org/northeast/61_27AveofSts.htm.

Mississippi

The section of U.S. Highway 61 in northwestern Mississippi, between the state line and Clarksdale, has received considerable upgrades since 1990, when casinos were legalized by the state. The resulting boom in casino development in Tunica County, coupled with dramatic population and development growth in DeSoto County, has led to relocating portions of the highway and expanding it to a divided four-lane highway.

Wisconsin-Minnesota bridge

In 2004, A new 2 lane Mississippi River Bridge opened in La Crosse, Wisconsin creating a 4 lane highway from downtown La Crosse to La Crescent, Minnesota. The new bridge brings traffic into La Crosse, and is located just south of the old Cass Street Bridge which continues to be used by traffic heading towards Minnesota.

Northern section

The northern section in Minnesota was separated when Interstate 35 was constructed, and decommisioned in 1990. North from Wyoming, old Highway 61 continues as "Forest Boulevard," and then as County 61 through Pine and Carlton counties before ending at MN Highway 210. 61 continues east along Highway 210 to Carlton and north on MN Highway 45 to Scanlon before turning east again as County 61/Westgate Boulevard. Interstate 35 has replaced 61 descending Thompson Hill into West Duluth.

Beginning at the terminus of Interstate 35 at 26th Avenue East, the 151 mile (243 km) long section between Duluth and Grand Portage (at the Canadian border) is designated North Shore Scenic Drive and is signed as Minnesota State Highway 61. The section from Duluth to Two Harbors is a four-lane highway.

The highway is a scenic highway and is part of the Lake Superior Circle Route that runs through Minnesota, Ontario, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Airline Highway

The section from Baton Rouge to New Orleans is known as Airline Highway. Although the road fronts the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, the name originally referred to the highway's straight route which contrasted to that of the winding Jefferson Highway. On Airline Highway in Jefferson Parish in 1987, Baton Rouge televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was confronted by rival preacher Marvin Gorman as Swaggart exited a motel with a prostitute. This incident increased the area's reputation as a locale of 'seedy motels'. Partly because of that reputation, this section in the suburbs of New Orleans was later renamed Airline Drive.

Termini

As of 2004, the highway's northern terminus is in Wyoming, Minnesota at an intersection with Interstate 35. Its southern terminus is in New Orleans, Louisiana at an intersection with US 90 (Tulane Avenue at North Broad Street).

States traversed

The highway passes through the following states:

Notable cities along the route

Quotations

I drove all the way from Storyville on a midnight Memphis run

From Bourbon Street to Beale Street straight up Highway 61

"Rose of Memphis," Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark

Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored

He was tryin' to create a next world war

He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor

He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before

But yes I think it can be very easily done

We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun

And have it on Highway 61.

"Highway 61 Revisited," Bob Dylan

The immigrant son left the mining town

Electrified the traditional

And headed out on Highway 61.

"Afterglow 61," Son Volt

Sources

Endpoints of US highways
Adam Froehlig (December 20, 2002). Minnesota Highway 61. (http://www.ajfroggie.com/roadpics/mn-ends/mn061.htm) MN Highway Endings. Accessed August 27, 2004.
Steve Riner (December 27, 2003). Details of Routes 51-75. (http://www.steve-riner.com/mnhighways/r51-75.htm) Unofficial Minnesota Highways Page. Accessed August 27, 2004.
The Iowa Highways Page
MEMPHIS TO NEW ORLEANS: More than just Graceland by Scott Stanton

External links

The Blues Highway Association, at The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University

References

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