Iowa Highway 31 (Iowa 31) is a diagonal

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

which runs from

Iowa Highway 141 Iowa Highway 141 (Iowa 141) is an east–west highway in the western and central portions of the state. It is the most direct link between Sioux City and Des Moines. It also serves as a freeway link between Des Moines and the outlying com ...

(Iowa 141) in Smithland to

U.S. Highway 59 U.S. Route 59 (US 59) is a north–south United States highway (though it was signed east–west in parts of Texas). A latecomer to the U.S. numbered route system, US 59 is now a border-to-border route, part of the NAFTA superhighway, NAFTA ...

(US 59) east of Quimby. For most of its length, the highway runs parallel to the

Little Sioux River The Little Sioux River is a river in the United States. It rises in southwestern Minnesota near the Iowa border, and continues to flow southwest for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map ...

. Since its designation, the route has changed very little. The route was paved by the mid-1960s.

Route description

Iowa Highway 31 begins at an

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their i ...

with

, Main Street in Smithland. The route heads north along Hickory Street and out of town parallel to the western bank of the

. It heads to the north-northeast for through the Woodbury County communities of

Oto Oto, Ōtō, or OTO may refer to: People * Oto (name), including a list of people with the name *The Otoe tribe (also spelled Oto), a Native American people Places *Oto, Spain, a village in the Valle de Broto, in Huesca, Aragon * Otorohanga, a to ...

and Anthon, and crosses the Little Sioux southwest of Correctionville. At Correctionville, Iowa 31 intersects U.S. Highway 20 and then curves around following the eastern bank of the Little Sioux. The route continues north-northeast, clipping the northwestern corner of Ida County, before entering

Cherokee County Cherokee County is the name of eight counties in the United States: * Cherokee County, Alabama * Cherokee County, Georgia * Cherokee County, Iowa * Cherokee County, Kansas * Cherokee County, North Carolina * Cherokee County, Oklahoma * Cherokee Co ...

south of

Washta Washta is a city in Cherokee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 209 at the time of the 2020 census. It is called "The Coldest Spot in Iowa", recording a temperature of without wind chill on January 12, 1912. Washta's name dates back ...

. At Quimby, the route turns east and travels to its northern end at

History

From its designation, Iowa 31 has run from Smithland to Quimby on a road which runs parallel to the

. In 1926, the route continued along the Little Sioux, ending at Primary Road No. 21, now

. By 1947, US 59 was straightened, and Iowa 31 followed the former alignment of US 59 to end at the straighter road. By 1952, Iowa 31 had moved onto its current alignment, where it remains to this day. By 1966, the highway was paved in its entirety.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML
End of Iowa 31
at Iowa Highway Ends 031 Transportation in Woodbury County, Iowa Transportation in Ida County, Iowa Transportation in Cherokee County, Iowa U.S. Route 59