In the early settlement of our county and state all of our roads were dirt, which quickly became mud when they got wet. First, wood planks were put over the wet spots, and later it was decided to gravel certain stretches of the roads. The first road in our state was established in 1838 by our Territorial Government, using Federal funds, to expedite the movement of soldiers. It ran from Dubuque to Keokuk and then to Iowa City.
In 1904, the Iowa Legislature designated Iowa State College as the highway commission with the mission to develop plans for construction and maintenance of our roads. In 1913, they established the Highway Commission. Commission personnel were given the authority to designate route names and establish the road markings.
Soon, better markings of the main roads became a necessity. In Hamilton County four main roads were given names by associations that came into existence to promote these roads. One of the earliest, in 1916, across Hamilton County was an east-west road that was named Grant Highway for President Ulysses S. Grant. To identify this route three bands were painted on corner poles; top and bottom were yellow, and the middle band was black. This highway covered the longest route. It went from Seaside, Oregon, to Chicago, Illinois. In our area it passed through Fort Dodge, Webster City, Blairsburg, and Williams. This path was roughly along what we now call "old Highway 20."
Another long route was established on December 23, 1919, from Des Moines to Glacier National Park. It was called the Custer Battlefield Highway. From Des Moines it passed north to Ames, then turned west and north to Stanhope and Webster City, and then turned west to Fort Dodge. This route was marked on telephone poles, fence posts and special poles with red bands and two white stripes. Between the white stripes was a white triangle with the black letters C, B, H. In addition, towns erected arrow markers such as the one shown with this story of a sign in Stanhope pointing to Ames and Des Moines. The length of this highway was 1,475 miles. In Hamilton County this road covered the present US 20 from the west and south on Iowa 17.
A north-south route was established on September 13, 1918, with the name Wilson Highway for President Woodrow Wilson. It started in Bedford, Missouri, and ended in Emmons, Minnesota, with a distance across Iowa of 273 miles. The sponsor of this highway was the Wilson Highway Association. The route was marked on poles with two narrow blue bands and a wide white band in the center, on which was painted a large red W. This route was later changed to US 69.
On June 29, 1917, a route of military importance started in Dubuque and ended in Sioux City, a distance of 360 miles. The sponsor was the Hawkeye Highway Association. The route was marked on poles at intersections with a wide white band that had a large blue letter H in the center. Again, this highway followed approximately the route of US 20.
By 1925, it was decided to number the Iowa roads instead of naming them. In this same year the U. S. Congress approved the road numbering plan which assigned odd numbers to north-south roads and even numbers to the east-west roads.
Along the way, the Hawkeye Highway name was changed to the number Iowa 5, which was changed to US 20 in 1926. In 1968, the first segment of the freeway was finished between US 69 and I-35. The maps of the day identified this segment of the freeway as I-520. This road was extended to Iowa 17 in 1976. By this time it was decided that this route would have at-grade-crossings, so it could not be continued as part of the Interstate system. The designation was changed to US 20. This left our old segment without a number, so it was assigned as Iowa 928. I have never seen a road sign with that number and the locals call it "Old 20." A new association named "US 20 Corridor Association" is pushing for the completion of the 4-lane freeway from Fort Dodge to Sioux City. On August 22, 2003, a major link from US 65 to the Waterloo area was finished by the opening of a new bridge over the Iowa River. Future plans call for US 20 to be completed across the state after 2007.