Minnesota State Highway 171 (MN 171) is a short

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

in the northwest corner of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, which runs from North Dakota Highway 59 at the

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

state line and continues east to its eastern terminus at its intersection with

U.S. Highway 75 U.S. Route 75 is a major north–south U.S. Highway that extends in the central United States. The highway's northern terminus is in Noyes, Minnesota, at the Canadian border, where it once continued as Manitoba Highway 75 on the other sid ...

near St. Vincent. The route passes through St. Vincent.

Route description

State Highway 171 serves as a short east–west route between U.S. 75, St. Vincent, the Red River, and Pembina, ND. The route is located in the Red River Valley region. The route is legally defined as Route 171 in the Minnesota Statutes.

History

Highway 171 was authorized on April 22, 1933 and was originally part of State Highway '' 73''. By 1935, this route was renumbered as part of U.S. Highway '' 59''. Adjoining ''North Dakota Highway 59'' in Pembina was numbered to match then-Highway 59 in Minnesota. In the 1950s, this route was renumbered ''171'' when a realigned U.S. 59 was constructed from Lancaster north to Canada. This route was paved (as U.S. 59) by 1940. Since 2003,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

-bound traffic on nearby U.S. 75 has been directed to follow State Highway 171 west into North Dakota, where it becomes ''North Dakota Highway 59'', which intersects

I-29 Interstate 29 (I-29) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern United States. I-29 runs from Kansas City, Missouri, at a junction with I-35 and I-70, to the Canada–US border near Pembina, North Dakota, where it connects with Manitoba ...

to Canada. In 2006, the closure became official of the nearby Noyes border crossing on U.S. 75. Minnesota and North Dakota have not yet petitioned AASHTO officials to change the definition of U.S. 75 to follow the routing of ''171'' and ''ND 59''. As of 2019, nearby U.S. 75 in Minnesota is still signed to what is now a dead-end at the old Noyes border crossing.

Major intersections

References

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