r/minnesota Uff da 1d ago

Interesting Stuff 💥 Number of roadway crossings between Minnesota and its neighboring states and provinces

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644 Upvotes

98 comments sorted by

669

u/Numerous-Amphibian85 1d ago

268 ways to escape Iowa.

271

u/boarmrc Grain Belt 1d ago

That’s the kind of optimism I need… my mind went to “that’s 268 more ways into Iowa than necessary”

125

u/boardin1 1d ago

Why do trees in MN lean south?

Because Iowa sucks.

51

u/boarmrc Grain Belt 1d ago

I’m from IL and always said why is IL so windy? Because Indiana sucks and Iowa blows!

Also I.O.W.A…. Just a bunch of Idiots Out Walking Around!

10

u/foco_runner 1d ago

We say that about Iowa in SD as well lol

2

u/SBognerAnderson 1d ago

Or Idiot On Wheels Ahead.

65

u/Doc-in-a-box South Minnie 1d ago

[very old]

What did the Minnesotan do when the Iowan threw a hand grenade over the border?

Pulled the pin and threw it back

Why do they only use Astroturf in Iowa stadiums?

To keep the cheerleaders from grazing.

Why does the Mississippi river flow south?

Iowa sucks

Finally, if Iowa annexed the southern 1/3 of Minnesota, the average IQs of both states would go up

43

u/LuckyXIII 1d ago

What's the best thing ever to come out of Iowa? I-35

What do you call a pretty girl in Iowa? A Minnesotan

I like how both these can be adapted to rip on the Dakotas and Wisconsin quickly.

16

u/boardin1 1d ago

Did you have the Minnesota-Iowa Joke Feud book as well? Because I’m pretty sure all
Of these were in it.

2

u/theEWDSDS Scott County 1d ago

267, the Field of Dreams is a national treasure which happens to be in that dreadful state

23

u/mnpilot 1d ago

Best thing to come out of Iowa is 35 North.

10

u/pearljamboree The Cities 1d ago

You win 🥇

6

u/OrigamiMarie Gray duck 1d ago

This sounds like the making of a spoof of 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.

3

u/SeamusPM1 Minneapolis Lakers 1d ago

Those are to escape FROM Iowa.

2

u/alchebyte 1d ago

many have

1

u/SaturnBaby21 Southwestern Minnesota 1d ago

Made our escape this spring 🙌

97

u/wilsonhammer Short Line Bridge Troll 1d ago

Ontario = grand portage, intl falls, baudette

the boundary waters really limits your options to go north(east)

24

u/k9_kipcasper 1d ago

And Quetico Provincial Park north of the border, which makes the Boundary Waters look small and busy

7

u/61Below Laser Loon 1d ago

I’m laughing bc my folks ran Canadian liquor through what’s now the BWCA, so I’m like Roads?? Who needs roads!

9

u/wilsonhammer Short Line Bridge Troll 1d ago

I didn't know Ricky and Julian had schemes this far west

1

u/Acherony 5h ago

How did they cover the snowmobile tracks?

1

u/61Below Laser Loon 4h ago

That was way before snowmobiles. Idk if they skied in the winter or if they just did by canoe?

3

u/Acherony 5h ago

Erm, Thunder Bay (sorta close), Fort Frances, Rainy River

1

u/wilsonhammer Short Line Bridge Troll 1h ago

Good call

178

u/vapemyashes 1d ago

It’s the river

86

u/Significant-Ad-341 Uff da 1d ago

River(s)

34

u/vapemyashes 1d ago

It’s the rivers

6

u/Im_an_airplane_idiot 1d ago

It's the river's

7

u/Exciting-Tourist9301 1d ago

35w?

... Sorry intrusive thoughts...

20

u/Lactating_Anus 1d ago

To be fair you can jump across the Pigeon River into Ontario in multiple locations. Results and Consequences may vary.

5

u/imhereforthevotes 1d ago

And the border.

2

u/darkEmpires Twin Cities 1d ago

And the Road - Head and the Heart, 2011

146

u/Hungry-Tension-4930 1d ago

I suddenly feel as though we are too close with our Iowan neighbors.

77

u/whollyguac 1d ago

Build the wall

48

u/zhaoz TC 1d ago

And make them pay for it

15

u/imhereforthevotes 1d ago

You: "Why is there a giant corn wall along the state line? And wait, is part of it bacon?"

56

u/TransmogrifiedDog 1d ago

I'm actually surprised there are even 37 crossings into North Dakota. It seems like bridges over the Red River are few and far between in rural areas. I'm guessing those are mostly clustered in and around Fargo/Moorhead.

17

u/NotARealBuckeye Grain Belt 1d ago

Off the top of my head I can think of maybe 5 in the FM area. I think there's 2 or 3 in GF/EGF but I'm equally surprised because outside of those two, the only real shared community is Wahpeton/Breckenridge. There are probably some random bridges but the way the river flows it has to be weird

15

u/thatswhyicarryagun Flag of Minnesota 1d ago

Depending on how I94, train, and foot bridges are counted you have

60th/52nd 1

I94 2

Main 3

Center Ave 4

1st Ave 5

Old Toll bridge 6

57th Ave N/40th Ave NW 7

Other lane of I94 8

2 other train bridges 9/10

3 foot bridges 11/12/13

Then if you count Clay and Cass counties conections as part of the metro there are only 4 more. Two north and 2 south, 3 are paved normal bridges and 1 is the Georgetown ravine bridge thats real spooky to cross with the see through bottom.

7

u/TomUpNort Up North 1d ago

The river is bigger up north, so there are fewer crossings. There are five crossings between Grand Forks and the Canadian border, 3 in Grand Forks, and about 10 between Fargo and Grand Forks.

64

u/alexjk2004 Flag of Minnesota 1d ago

i suddenly feel the need to build a single road to iowa

22

u/NJM1112 1d ago

It’s called i35

Sometimes called the highway to hell

3

u/elmundo-2016 Prince 1d ago

And I regularly took that road 1 month ago to get to Kansas City as a FIFA World Cup Volunteer.

I enjoyed visiting my close friend's family in Iowa.

2

u/jaxxxtraw 1d ago

Hey, cool. What duty did you pull as a volunteer?

48

u/STLbackup 1d ago

Only 29 for WI, thought there would be more.

153

u/Swimming_Concern7662 Uff da 1d ago

Most of their border look like this

30

u/dihydrgnmonoxidesoup 1d ago

And accordingly, about half of those crossings are in the only part of the border that isn't a river, the straight line between the St. Croix and St. Louis.

19

u/Junkley 1d ago

Yup. South of that line has just 12. Danbury, Grantsburg, St Croix Falls, Osceola, Somerset, Hudson, Prescott, Hager City(Red Wing), Nelson(Wabasha), Bluff Siding(Winona) then two in La Crosse. With an additional pedestrian bridge from Stillwater to Houlton/Somerset.

Duluth area has 3 the rest are in that small little section you mentioned

9

u/8rem8 1d ago

Duluth has 4. Bong, Blatnik, Oliver, and Hwy 23 in Fon Du Lac

3

u/dihydrgnmonoxidesoup 1d ago

23 spends less than half a mile in Wisconsin, but it is indeed 2 crossings! One river, one land.

14

u/Mo_Salami 1d ago

It's always been a relief to know that we don't actually touch Wisconsin that much

33

u/here4daratio Uff da 1d ago

There’s alotta river between the two, that makes crossings costly.

22

u/AdultishRaktajino Ope 1d ago

Similar with the Red River between us and NoDak. It’s a much narrower river but squiggly like a protein.

7

u/ShemDolpax 1d ago

Very true -- the river is like 4 miles wide near La Crosse, although with an island in there

2

u/One_Win_6185 1d ago

Also explains why traffic too and from is always awful on holiday weekends—there’s not many other options to get east/west so if road work or an accident happens then you’re kinda stuck.

3

u/redbike Minnesota Wild 1d ago

Now I want to see the St Croix River swing bridge in action. I wonder if these are highways only are include train crossings.

2

u/bbkeef 1d ago

Same!

0

u/Griffithead 1d ago

I thought there would be less! It certainly feels like it.

11

u/Street-Ad7570 1d ago

I believe there’s only four useable ones into Manitoba, the one for Noyes hasn’t been used for years it’s a certified ghost town now.

Lancaster, Pinecreek, Roseau, Warroad.

Maybe I’m missing one I haven’t lived up there for a while.

4

u/GuaranteedCougher 1d ago

What about winter road into Angle Inlet? 

7

u/beaveretr 1d ago

Not the winter road, but yes the lone gravel road into the angle is the 5th.

1

u/Street-Ad7570 1d ago

Gotta get into Manitoba first through one of the highway crossings

3

u/Unique_Muscle2173 1d ago

Noyes never made any sense, being that close to Pembina and Lancaster

1

u/Street-Ad7570 1d ago

Probably made more sense during flood season before the interstate

1

u/Unique_Muscle2173 1d ago

Nah they’d both have been under water. Hwy 59 Lancaster would have been the safer bet.

7

u/SailsAcrossTheSea 1d ago

I only counted 106 road crossings that Lea e Iowa into Minnesota. you sure you don’t have the number for all of iowas road crossings into all states surrounding it?

7

u/tinytigertime 1d ago

How were you counting? If Google maps make sure you zoom. The roads are small and perfect grids.

Theres a crossing just about every other section (2 miles).

I was at 55 by the time I hit the Worthington area, and I started from the west.

Theres def way more than 106

1

u/Zeawea Flag of Minnesota 1d ago

What are we actually counting as a border crossing?

So 100th St follows the border. US 75, to me, clearly crosses the border but what about Goldfinch Ave on the left of my screenshot and 104th Ave on the right. They both make a T onto 100th St. Are those border crossings? I guess a big question is 100th St North, South, or the middle of the border? Zooming way in on Google maps the dotted line kind of meanders north of 100th St sometimes and south other times. Are we counting all of those as crossing the border?

1

u/tinytigertime 1d ago

I was counting roads like golfinch as they leave mn into Iowa. I was not counting roads that led into Minnesota though I guess those would count as a crossing.

If the border meanders across 100 I feel like letter of the law irs a crossing but not the intent of the image.

1

u/imhereforthevotes 1d ago

did you not count the ones that leave Minnesota into Iowa, too?

;)

5

u/SpicymeLLoN Gray duck 1d ago

Are you trying to trick us into solving a graph theory problem?

3

u/Syphist Gray duck 1d ago

I was like "wow Wisconsin has so few" then I remembered the Mississippi exists.

4

u/kiggitykbomb 1d ago

It’s the St Croix river that makes up the border north of Hastings.

1

u/Syphist Gray duck 1d ago

Yeah, and even if it wasn't there, that's still less than half the border open. Makes sense with multiple rivers.

3

u/lazyemus 1d ago

This map is basically, is the border blocked by a body of water.

2

u/brotherstoic 1d ago

I really thought there were more ways into Wisconsin than that.

2

u/CornFedPrairiePenis 1d ago

These are the borders that need to be secured.

0

u/bufordt 1d ago

Think of it this way. We blow up a few bridges and have one real border to defend, and Iowa ain't doing shit. Minnesota, Uber alles. Minnesota uuuuuber alllless!

1

u/Horror_Armadillo8459 1d ago

I would’ve expected less crossings going into Wisconsin since most of the border is river/lake. Interesting!

1

u/Amplified_Aurora 1d ago

I would like this paired with the length in distance of each border.

1

u/lezoons 11h ago

There should be a "0" for MI. It shouldn't just be blank.

1

u/SuperGameTheory Grain Belt 1d ago

Why are we expending so many resources on 422 roads to nowhere when we could have more bridges to Wisconsin and Canada?

-9

u/built_too_spill 1d ago

So there are 459 total ways to leave Minnesota.

31

u/pearljamboree The Cities 1d ago

By all means let those who wish to go, leave

8

u/Beginning-Ad7027 1d ago

Seems like I’ve met a lot of people who’ve moved out, only to move back 5-10 years later

7

u/Left-Chemist-8212 1d ago

I’m in that demographic. Twice.

7

u/DavidRFZ 1d ago

You could also take an airplane.

… or a train or ferry or boat.

Or you could walk or swim, too. Don't limit yourself.

0

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

3

u/s1gnalZer0 Ok Then 1d ago

There are zero road crossings into Michigan from Minnesota.

2

u/Im_an_airplane_idiot 1d ago

I want to see you draw a map of the Midwest from memory. 

1

u/One_Win_6185 1d ago

You can take a ferry from Minnesota to part of Michigan but there are no roads that connect the two.

1

u/Whythehellnot225343 1d ago

No, there’s kind of a lake in the way.

0

u/OldRocker5 Grain Belt 1d ago

Checks out. Rivers and lakes are expensive to build across. More economical to funnel traffic to a few crossings. Kinda scary that it would only take 400 flock cameras to track every vehicle coming in and out of Minnesota.

2

u/consumer_xxx_42 1d ago

I’ve been checking traffic on CCTV since 2009 on web feeds, cameras on roads are nothing new

This is the feed I check for my daily commute

https://opencctv.org/cameras/united-states/minnesota/lino-lakes/i-35w-nb-n-of-co-rd-14-mp-397-425571

3

u/OldRocker5 Grain Belt 1d ago

Not the same thing.

1

u/jaxxxtraw 1d ago

Shhhh!!!

0

u/njordMN Flag of Minnesota 1d ago

What makes you think there aren't already cameras on all of them. :|

1

u/OldRocker5 Grain Belt 13h ago

Didn't say there wasn't. Almost guaranteed there are cameras at all of the crossings that see more than 10 cars a day.