Minnesota State Highway 30 (MN 30) is a

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-access ...

in southwest and southeast

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

South Dakota Highway 34 South Dakota Highway 34 (SD 34) is a state route that runs parallel to Interstate 90 across the entire state of South Dakota. It begins at the Wyoming border west of Belle Fourche, as a continuation of Wyoming Highway 24 (WYO 24). The east ...

at the

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

state line near Airlie, west of Pipestone, and continues to its eastern terminus at its

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 Minnesota Highway 43 in Rushford.

Route description

State Highway 30 serves as an east–west route between Pipestone, Slayton, St. James, Stewartville, Chatfield, and Rushford. Highway 30 parallels

U.S. Highway 14 U.S. Route 14 (abbreviated U.S. 14 or US 14), an east–west route, is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It currently has a length of 1,398 miles (2,250 km), but it had a peak length of 1,429 miles (2,300 km). For ...

and Interstate Highway 90 throughout its route. The

Pipestone National Monument Pipestone National Monument is located in southwestern Minnesota, just north of the city of Pipestone, Minnesota. It is located along the highways of U.S. Route 75, Minnesota State Highway 23 and Minnesota State Highway 30. The quarries are sac ...

is located immediately north of Highway 30 in Pipestone.

Lake Shetek State Park Lake Shetek State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, on Lake Shetek, which is the largest lake in southwestern Minnesota and the headwaters of the Des Moines River. It is most popular for water recreation and camping. However ...

is located near Highway 30 in Murray County on the shore of

Lake Shetek Lake Shetek is the largest lake in southwestern Minnesota, United States, and the headwaters of the Des Moines River. It is located in The Lakes, an unincorporated community in Murray County a few miles north-northwest of Currie. The name ''S ...

. The park is located immediately north of the town of

Currie Currie ( gd, Currach, IPA: �kʰuːᵲəx is a village and suburb on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated south west of the city centre. Formerly within the County of Midlothian, it now falls within the jurisdiction of the City of Edi ...

and northeast of Slayton. Highway 30 passes through the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest in

Olmsted Olmsted may refer to: People * Olmsted (name) Places * Olmsted Air Force Base, inactive since 1969 * Olmsted, Illinois * Olmsted County, Minnesota * Olmsted Falls, Ohio * Olmsted Point, a viewing area in Yosemite National Park * Olmsted Town ...

and Fillmore counties.

History

State Highway 30 was established in 1933, originally running from Highway 15 to Rushford. It replaced former ''State Highway 41'' from Blooming Prairie to Hayfield. The road was completely gravel at this time except where it overlapped other highways. By 1946, the road was still unpaved except for short sections in and near some towns. The first extended paving was done from Cummingsville to Rushford in 1948 and 1949. The remainder of the highway was paved throughout the 1950s; by 1960 it was fully paved. In 1955, the highway was re-routed east of Chatfield to overlap with Highway 74. In 1961, Highway 30 was extended westward, along the route of what had previously been ''State Highway 47''. (This highway number was simultaneously re-used on another highway in east-central Minnesota.) This extension was paved except for the section between U.S. 71 and the Cottonwood-Watonwan county line; this section was paved in 1965. Highway 47 was originally established November 2, 1920 from Pipestone to Slayton. It was extended west to the South Dakota state line and east to Highway 4 north of St. James in 1933. The entire highway was gravel at this time. In 1939, it was realigned to take a direct route to Darfur from U.S. 71, bypassing

Comfrey ''Symphytum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common name comfrey (pronounced ). There are 59 recognized species.WFO (2022): Symphytum L. Published on the Internet; http://www.worldfloraonline.org/ ...

. By 1940, the roadway was paved from the state line to Westbrook. Paving from Westbrook to U.S. 71 was performed in 1950 and 1951, and through Watonwan County in 1955. In the late 1970s, Highway 30's overlap with Highway 60 was upgraded to a four-lane expressway.

Future

There are plans to reroute the highway into the City of Rochester to better serve the

Rochester International Airport Rochester International Airport is an international airport located seven miles (11 km) south of downtown Rochester in Olmsted County, Minnesota. It is the second-busiest airport in Minnesota. It used to be "Rochester Municipal Airport", ...

and improve conditions on U.S. 63.

Major intersections

References

External links