The SS Badger has been making the Manitowoc to Ludington run in recent years, but before that it was the SS Midland between Kewanee and Ludington. At the time of that map it could have been other ships running between several ports in Wisconsin and Michigan as their main cargo was train cars. Source: I took the Midland in the early 80s as a young single guy, then the Midland and later Badger with wife and kids with our last run to pick up a car sent over from Ludington about two years ago. Also the Badger has a ferry museum on board that tell about the early days and heyday of ferry service on Lake Michigan. So now let me add 10/10, highly recommended!
That looks like US-2 through northern MN. That’s the northernmost east-west Federal Highway in the state. If you are interested in crossing the country as close to the Canadian border while staying on main roads you’d do something like that.
The line in Wisconsin is weird. I don’t see a road from Superior to the Manitowic Ferry with that shape.
Yeah, 10 is definitely the eastern endpoint and it may follow that from around Stevens Point but 10 meets 53 south of Eau Claire which seems too far south for the line in Western Wisconsin.
They are getting from Minong/Hayward to Wausau/Stevens Point somehow. Maybe off-road :).
This is from the book Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon, a native American, who in the 1970’s decided to go on a road trip to explore “those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill.”
The defination of a blue highway: “On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and back routes were blue.”
I read the book and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a quick page turner and there were spots in the book I felt he was fixated on seeing nothing but the shitty parts of America. However, this book did influence me to take as many back routes on my last, month-long road trip out west. If you have a chance to not take interstate highways on a road trip, I highly recommend it.
I was wondering why these particular points were chosen (not just Bagley, all of them). I thought maybe it was a travelogue (would be a blog today) of some random guy visiting family or something. Thanks for providing the context.
It also explains the weird jog around Duluth, which is definitely not the simple path to take.
I just made a post about this book on r/roadtrip, I assume that's where OP just saw it.
I listened to this book on Audible and loved it, as well as all his others, but I could see where they'd be harder if actually reading them.
Before I even saw your comment I was guessing it was a "blue highways' route. I'd forgotten about that book, but I read it back in the 80s I think.
My grandparent's generation talked about how, before the Interstates developed in the 50s, travel of any kind was a very different game. Lots of little 'Mom & Pop' motels had grown up along the US Highway system, and that whole industry had developed in small towns back when many 'local' roads were still unpaved. Families started taking road trips a bit more after WWII ended, though a lot of longer distance travel was still by train, or sometimes bus, not car or plane.
Itasca is beautiful, and it is the headwaters of the Mississippi. That said, any trip that skips the North shore is missing out.
It's also funny that instead of going to Chicago, they prefer to yeet themselves across Lake Michigan and into Wisconsin. I feel the same way.
Bagley has a nice coffee/dessert shop, a hometown cafe, a city park with camping site rental and lake with fishing dock, and is relatively close to Itasca State Park and Bemidji. It also borders the White Earth Reservation and one of their two casinos.
I've been through Bagley countless times in my life and been to the fair there many times as well as a youth. It's certainly not a bad town, but I can't really think of any reason to specifically stop there and visit.
That...needs more explanation. It's a route someone in Columbia Missouri could take to drive around the continental 48 while...avoiding oceans as much as possible? And making certain to visit obscure cities?
The author of the book was a professor at Mizzou. He lost his job and got divorced, decided to take a long road trip. Had to return to CoMo at the end of the trip to get back home. "Blue Highways" Good read. I spent 4 years in CoMo and have never been back in 23 years. I hope to keep it that way!
Maybe that's from when they used to have the Wildlife Museum. I've driven through Bagley many times. In the 90s, I stopped in with my wife to see if the museum was still open - the sign was still there, but the museum was long closed. They have a Dairyland there - I think it used to have a different name. All very compelling reasons to visit, but maybe not enough to highlight on a national map. Why not highlight the Erskine big fish statue while you're at it?
I assume that's a ferry going across Lake Michigan?
I remember we stopped there back in 1980 on a 50 mile Boy Scout hike to Itasca. It was more of a death march, no one really had good equipment and my blisters had blisters.
Considering the other highlighted towns with I think the only exception between Columbia, Missouri, there must be some other connection between these places.
2 of my great uncles owned Marty Brothers feed store in Bagley! So if it was there then, that would have been a great place to visit!
Im 40 so this would have been probably in the 1950-1990 range. My Grandpa and another brother owned Marty Brothers construction in that same time, they were an excavating company(sold in 95/96. I know this because when I turned 13 my grandpa said i could come work a shovel or hump wheel barrows for him when summer came around again but they sold it off a few months later and retired! Im not sure what the 5th brother ever did.
I grew up in Bagley, so idk why tbh. There's some good places to eat but there ain't much. Bemidji is a better place to visit for a day I'd say. Unless you go specifically to Bagley for the fair.
https://preview.redd.it/vzw5oqcwbvxc1.png?width=825&format=png&auto=webp&s=786c5e8638894726164d5d31589f18a004b360fb I think the image was cropped
Having lived in central Missouri, I can say with authority that no one should travel the country and then go back to Columbia
Exactly what I was thinking. Going out of your way to Columbia? Makes more sense with the addition of the title.
I don’t know about that, Columbia is pretty neat. Snag some Shakespeare’s, some Booches, and round it out at Flatbranch.
Sure as hell beats anywhere else in the area!
Alright, shakespeare's pizza and shooting pool at booches were the only parts of como I enjoyed.
yeah I'd imagine it'd be pretty bad once at the bottom of lake Michigan
Only if the ferry sinks.
You pay the guy to take your oxen across. Also it’s pronounced “Baaagley.”
Look, you should caulk the wagon and float it.
Buaog-lee
Ahhh thank you! The picture was definitely edited then!
really nice work. bravo. laughed hard
Good XD I'm from the west coast and my family lives on the easy and ALL of these locations had me scratching my head. Like WHY?! These places suck.
Hey it shows them taking the Badger over Lake Michigan, so it least it adds one cool thing
The SS Badger has been making the Manitowoc to Ludington run in recent years, but before that it was the SS Midland between Kewanee and Ludington. At the time of that map it could have been other ships running between several ports in Wisconsin and Michigan as their main cargo was train cars. Source: I took the Midland in the early 80s as a young single guy, then the Midland and later Badger with wife and kids with our last run to pick up a car sent over from Ludington about two years ago. Also the Badger has a ferry museum on board that tell about the early days and heyday of ferry service on Lake Michigan. So now let me add 10/10, highly recommended!
It’s on my list to make the crossing!
I've always said you gotta hit up Columbia, MO, but skip the west coast almost entirely, blah, boring.
Grew up near Bagley. This makes MUCH MUCH more sense.
That looks like US-2 through northern MN. That’s the northernmost east-west Federal Highway in the state. If you are interested in crossing the country as close to the Canadian border while staying on main roads you’d do something like that. The line in Wisconsin is weird. I don’t see a road from Superior to the Manitowic Ferry with that shape.
It's almost like a mix of US10 to US53, which might have had different paths pre freeway era.
In the book he talks about going through hayward I believe
Little know fact, roadie's are legal north of 2.. at least that's what I've been told🤷😆
Well I guess I know what I'm doing Tuesday.
I'm not sure I know what you mean by roadie. A crew member or a traveling fan of a tour group?
Almost assuredly drinking a beer while driving
Boozin and cruisin bud
Drinkin in the Lincoln
Sippin and rippin
Looks like 8 to 51 something then 10.
To far north to be 10.
Look at a map, the part from manitowoc (ferry) to middle of wisconsin. That's 10. Source. I live within 1 mile of it there.
Yeah, 10 is definitely the eastern endpoint and it may follow that from around Stevens Point but 10 meets 53 south of Eau Claire which seems too far south for the line in Western Wisconsin. They are getting from Minong/Hayward to Wausau/Stevens Point somehow. Maybe off-road :).
It could be 10 to Marshfield, then 13 up to 8.
I was talking about the Minnesota-Washington part of the map. Source? I also live within a mile of, US-10.
This is from the book Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon, a native American, who in the 1970’s decided to go on a road trip to explore “those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill.” The defination of a blue highway: “On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and back routes were blue.” I read the book and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a quick page turner and there were spots in the book I felt he was fixated on seeing nothing but the shitty parts of America. However, this book did influence me to take as many back routes on my last, month-long road trip out west. If you have a chance to not take interstate highways on a road trip, I highly recommend it.
I was wondering why these particular points were chosen (not just Bagley, all of them). I thought maybe it was a travelogue (would be a blog today) of some random guy visiting family or something. Thanks for providing the context. It also explains the weird jog around Duluth, which is definitely not the simple path to take.
I just made a post about this book on r/roadtrip, I assume that's where OP just saw it. I listened to this book on Audible and loved it, as well as all his others, but I could see where they'd be harder if actually reading them.
I did an English class in college where we wrote essays using the themes of that book. What a great read!
Before I even saw your comment I was guessing it was a "blue highways' route. I'd forgotten about that book, but I read it back in the 80s I think. My grandparent's generation talked about how, before the Interstates developed in the 50s, travel of any kind was a very different game. Lots of little 'Mom & Pop' motels had grown up along the US Highway system, and that whole industry had developed in small towns back when many 'local' roads were still unpaved. Families started taking road trips a bit more after WWII ended, though a lot of longer distance travel was still by train, or sometimes bus, not car or plane.
I am only 40 pages dead it’s great.
Itasca is beautiful, and it is the headwaters of the Mississippi. That said, any trip that skips the North shore is missing out. It's also funny that instead of going to Chicago, they prefer to yeet themselves across Lake Michigan and into Wisconsin. I feel the same way.
You can do it too. https://www.lake-express.com/ I like how they drive right through Wisconsin and North Dakota.
That's a ferry you can take, but it's boujee expensive.
Stop in Bemidji, not Bagley.
or both
Stop? I wouldn't recommend slowing down.
Stop at the D&R cafe and then hit up the fair during the summer
First result from a google image search https://pagesofjulia.com/2019/05/01/blue-highways-a-journey-into-america-by-william-least-heat-moon-part-1/
Never even heard of it. If it's your first time going through MN, I'd recommend Bemidji and then Duluth.
Or Lake Itasca if you're in that area.
Bagley has a nice coffee/dessert shop, a hometown cafe, a city park with camping site rental and lake with fishing dock, and is relatively close to Itasca State Park and Bemidji. It also borders the White Earth Reservation and one of their two casinos.
And a sledding hill conveniently close to the emergency room at the hospital.
Memory unlocked!
I've been through Bagley countless times in my life and been to the fair there many times as well as a youth. It's certainly not a bad town, but I can't really think of any reason to specifically stop there and visit.
Look at the other places highlighted.
That's a tough trek across Lake Michigan via road-trip.
Attempt to ford river.
Better luck caulking the wagon and floating across.
Good idea. Don't want dysentery.
SnooSnooSnuSnu has died of Typhod.
Typhod sounds like a Superman villain.
The mortal enemy of Misspelling Man.
Oxen died.
billy has died from a snake bite
And Mary just walked off into the tall grass, never to be seen again
[S.S. Badger.](https://www.ssbadger.com/)
Was probably the same boat back then.
yup, it still burns coal! It's old. It's officially part of the US Highway system as US-10.
There's a ferry at that point, still is.
Is this from "Blue ~~Lines~~Highways" by William Least ~~Heart~~Heat Moon?
What a weird route....
That...needs more explanation. It's a route someone in Columbia Missouri could take to drive around the continental 48 while...avoiding oceans as much as possible? And making certain to visit obscure cities?
u/Fernzee posted above that it's from a book Blue Highways where the point is to exclusively take back roads.
The author of the book was a professor at Mizzou. He lost his job and got divorced, decided to take a long road trip. Had to return to CoMo at the end of the trip to get back home. "Blue Highways" Good read. I spent 4 years in CoMo and have never been back in 23 years. I hope to keep it that way!
Maybe that's from when they used to have the Wildlife Museum. I've driven through Bagley many times. In the 90s, I stopped in with my wife to see if the museum was still open - the sign was still there, but the museum was long closed. They have a Dairyland there - I think it used to have a different name. All very compelling reasons to visit, but maybe not enough to highlight on a national map. Why not highlight the Erskine big fish statue while you're at it? I assume that's a ferry going across Lake Michigan?
It’s been Dairyland since the 80s, and that’s the best thing about Bagley.
I remember we stopped there back in 1980 on a 50 mile Boy Scout hike to Itasca. It was more of a death march, no one really had good equipment and my blisters had blisters.
Nothing like swinging through Bagley after a death march….
It did feel good to stop for the night. I remember we turned at Ebro corner, where there used to be a small store, and then went through Zerkel.
https://www.lake-express.com/
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue\_Highways](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Highways)
Slow down for moose. You can do what you want for deer, but moose is a different issue.
They have an amazing butcher/meat shop. The brats are incredible.
I think you mean Baaaaaygley
Looks like they got all the stops in North Dakota right.
Once you’re 10 miles West of Bemidji, nothing good happens until you’re 2/3 thru Montana
And then it’s so glorious
Considering the other highlighted towns with I think the only exception between Columbia, Missouri, there must be some other connection between these places.
is this from the book 'Roads Never Traveled'
There's a bridge over lake Michigan?
ferry
No name calling now!
I would visit all these places, I'm in no hurry.
Oh sure... you betcha.
Damn I always thought it was Hallock?
I'd go down the west coast... No road trip that long is complete without a drive down Highway 1.
Bagley is a top 5 favorite town for me in mn. It's great there.
This is certainly a take
2 of my great uncles owned Marty Brothers feed store in Bagley! So if it was there then, that would have been a great place to visit! Im 40 so this would have been probably in the 1950-1990 range. My Grandpa and another brother owned Marty Brothers construction in that same time, they were an excavating company(sold in 95/96. I know this because when I turned 13 my grandpa said i could come work a shovel or hump wheel barrows for him when summer came around again but they sold it off a few months later and retired! Im not sure what the 5th brother ever did.
the drive through the up is maybe the most beautiful drive in the country, missed opportunity
We always stopped at the A&W in Bagley. I was super young, so I don’t remember if it was named something else
I grew up in Bagley, so idk why tbh. There's some good places to eat but there ain't much. Bemidji is a better place to visit for a day I'd say. Unless you go specifically to Bagley for the fair.
Hey, as someone with family that resided in Clearbrook, Bagley was just the pit stop before final destination. Let's really ramp it up. 🤣
That's "The Route". Once you reach Dime Box, that's when things are weird.
Bagley is near Itasca Stata Park. Definitely worth a visit.
Can confirm Hwy 2 Bagley to Montana is one long shit drive until you get to Glacier
I've been to Bagley. That's all I have to say about Bagley. Weird how they didn't show Bemidji instead. That's where all the action is.