65 vs 169

[texaskdog]

Looking at my 1953 road atlas I was looking at Lyndale, which is US 65 and becomes 169.  I am curious why a 2 digit US route ends in favor of a 3 digit, when as far as I can tell US 65 never went north of Minneapolis anyway. 

[froggie]

65 didn't end at 169.  It turned east on Lake St (concurrent with US 212), then turned north on 3rd Ave to end downtown at 3rd & Washington (US 12/52).

[texaskdog]

someone must have been adamant about having 65 end downtown instead of reversing them so 65 would go much farther

[NE2]

MN 65 always (post-1934) continued north, and if you believe official state maps it was originally supposed to be US 65 to McGregor.

[edit]Hmmm, but US 169 extended to International Falls pre-1934. I would guess that when it was created ca. 1930, they wanted to take it as far as they could and didn't think about extending US 65 (which ended in St. Paul anyway until 1934; it's US 55 that used Lyndale previously).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

US 65's brief extension was revoked (or never approved to begin with) by AASHO and MDH was made to change it back to MN 65. I would guess it never got as far as being signed.

[DJ Particle]

65 didn't end at 169.  It turned east on Lake St (concurrent with US 212), then turned north on 3rd Ave to end downtown at 3rd & Washington (US 12/52).

You'd think it would have made more sense, even back then, for US/MN 65 to follow Lyndale > Hennepin > Central   

[froggie]

Lyndale/Hennepin was a fustercluck even in the '30s.  This allowed 65 traffic in the pre-Interstate area to avoid that mess.