Effective highway history research involves consulting a variety of resources both online and in print. Many newspaper indexes are available that date back to the earliest highway projects in Minnesota and around the United States, as well as government records, books and reports. Many full-text resources are available on the Internet and through the MnDOT Library. This guide is a collection of relevant and useful resources our librarians have selected to assist you in your research.
Primary Sources
A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects. Interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications via email, blogs, listservs, and newsgroups are also primary sources.
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, analyze, evaluate, summarize or otherwise process primary sources. Examples of secondary source materials include newspaper articles, book or movie reviews, and scholarly journal content that discuss someone else's original research.
Map of opening dates of Interstate highway segements in Minnesota
Historic Minnesota highway maps published from 1919 to 2009
Highway Construction Project Logs
*Searching the Construction Project Logs
Select the county you wish to search to find the route number that you want and select the control section . A control section is a numbering system MnDOT uses to keep track of segments of roads. Once you open a particular control section project log, you'll see a graphical representation of the history of that road segment and sub-segments including when it was built and when certain maintenance activities were performed.
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