Building the Red Trail

Today I-94 forms the major east-west route for auto travel and commercial truck transport across the state. Not surprising, from its earliest beginnings, the course of the highway was substantially defined by the railroad. Gentle gradients, direct routes between towns, little hindrance from cultivated fields or property fencing, and the reassurance of civilization in an age before directional signage, all contributed to the parallel construction.

Although it followed virtually the same path, the Red Trail was a very different highway from the one we know today. Our 70 mph, well-marked, divided four- lane highways have grown from the unsurfaced, barely graded, trails that boasted travel at the rate of 3.5 mph with directions marked only by red bands painted on fence posts.