Current and historic US Highway ends
in International Falls, MN

International Falls is an important logging center, and it's the location of a major border crossing between the U.S. and Canada. Not surprisingly, it's been served by the US highway system since the beginning. Photos on this page are courtesy of Greg Osbaldeston (June 2001) and Monte Castleman (summer 2003). This first one is looking north on US 53 (2nd Avenue) at 3rd Street.

Osbaldeston

Northbound US 71 comes in from the left on 3rd St, then continues ahead with US 53 on 2nd Av. The signage visible behind the stop sign is shown close-up below:

Castleman

Those are the northernmost US 53 and US 71 signs. US 169 used to follow what is now US 53 from Virginia to I-Falls, but that route was truncated at Virginia in 1934 when the US 53 designation was extended through Duluth and Virginia. About a block or two ahead, the road angles slightly to the left: that's the bridge over the Rainy River to Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada. It's shown a little closer below:

Castleman

You can see the tollgate for the bridge; the red/white/blue building houses the US Customs office. You can click here to view a scan of a postcard (also sent by Monte) that shows what this border crossing looked like right about the time when US highways were first signed.

(Speaking of the Rainy River, I'd like to help clear up a common misconception: looking at a map of Minnesota, it's easy to assume all that water along the state's northern border flows from west to east, into Lake Superior. But that's not the case at all: most of northern Minnesota actually drains into Hudson Bay. The Rainy River flows westward out of Rainy Lake, past I-Falls and Baudette, into Lake of the Woods... which in turn ends up in Lake Winnipeg and eventually Hudson Bay.)

Anyway, below we're looking the opposite direction:

Castleman

That's looking south from Fort Frances into I-Falls, at the north beginning of US 53/71, and the historic north beginning of US 169. Monte reports that there's a weight restriction on the southbound (right) span, so sometimes northbound traffic has to wait while southbound trucks and other heavy loads use the left bridge.