U.S. Route 212

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U.S. Route 212

Length:

949 mi (1527 km)

Formed:

1926

West end:

Yellowstone National Park

East end:

MN 62 in Edina, MN

United States Numbered Highways
U.S. Routes - Bannered - Divided - Replaced

U.S. Highway 212 is a spur of U.S. Highway 12. Though it currently never intersects US-12, it once had an eastern terminus at US-12 in St. Paul, Minnesota. It runs for 949 miles (1,527 km) from Minnesota State Highway 62 at Edina, Minnesota to Yellowstone National Park. It passes through the states of Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. It goes through the cities of Watertown, South Dakota and Billings, Montana.

The section of Highway 212 between Red Lodge, Montana and Cooke City, Montana is known as the Beartooth Highway, which the late CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt called "the most beautiful drive in America."

160 miles of Highway 212 in Minnesota is officially designated Minnesota Veterans Memorial Highway. Yellowstone Trail is the original name designation for this same stretch of U.S. 212 from the auto trail days. Yellowstone Trail was one of the first designated names written into law in the state, but not now marked anywhere along the Minnesota portion of U.S. 212.

In Chaska and Eden Prairie, Minnesota, US-212 is being realigned to a new freeway alignment. Part of this new alignment is already constructed between Valley View Road (Hennepin-39) and Dell Road and is temporarily designated as MN-312 until such time as the freeway is completed. This new freeway will have a designated shoulder on both sides that will be exclusive service to buses for a planned Bus Rapid Transit route starting from Carver, MN and points onward along the freeway. This would help congestion from the exploding populations of the places that the new freeway will serve.

[edit] Legal Definitions

The Minnesota section of U.S. 212 is defined as Routes 155, 12, 187, and 260 in Minnesota Statutes §§ 161.114(2) and 161.115(86), (118), and (191).[1],[2]

The South Dakota section of U.S. 212 is defined at South Dakota Codified Laws § 31-4-206.[3]