(July 10, 1935-Late 1980)
NORTH End: Stop sign, 2nd St., Galva, Ida County
Facing north on 328, south of the end
Photo by Neil Bratney
Neil writes, "Ida Co. D15 (historic US 20, c. 1932) crossed IA 328 on the south side of Galva at the stop sign in the foreground." Most likely, given experience with other spurs, 328 continued past this intersection (which still has DOT-style signage)...
Facing north on 328
Photo by Neil Bratney
...and ended in this area, in the deep background of the above picture.
By all rights, this should have been IA 329. But the Highway Commission, fresh off a numbering spree, accidentally assigned the number 328 twice - first to a spur to Pilot Mound, and then this road. Instead of giving the later route the higher number, the Pilot Mound spur got 329 instead.
SOUTH End: Stop sign/T intersection, US 20, Ida County
Facing south on 328
Photo by Neil Bratney
Neil's observation: "With medians constructed on both highways, this appears to be quite a heavy-duty highway, however I'm sure the pavement's seen better days."
Facing west on 20
Photo by Neil Bratney
Facing east on 20
Closeup of signs at right of above picture
Facing west on 20 just west of the intersection
Between Correctionville and US 71, 20 follows a statewide correction line. Along this line, the surveyed miles do not line up north and south of it; they and the townships they make up are offset. This is why counties in Iowa are not all perfect squares or rectangles. This correction line is responsible for the offset nature of the entire tier of counties 20 follows. In the background of this picture is the only place 20 deviates from a straight line in Ida County. In the past, 20 followed this line across the state at one time or another a lot more, including from Duncombe to south of Williams (old IA 928), from IA 14 to D18 (previously IA 57, now D19), and between Raymond and Manchester (D22/old IA 939). Today's four-lane generally runs a bit south of this line.
The two junction with M25, going south here and north to Galva, are closer to each other than usual because the road to Galva runs through the middle of a section and the southbound route follows the line. (In a county road street numbering system, southbound M25 would be an xx0 street while northbound would be an xx5.) The concrete island at left ends in the unseen foreground of the shot two pictures up. LGS is "To 175 10"; east of Ida Grove the two stay about that far apart.
Last seen: 1980 (1981 map)
Pictures by Neil Bratney: First-fourth, 9/20/02
Pictures by me: Fifth-seventh, 6/14/04
Page created 5/4/04; last updated 6/18/07