Iowa Highway 37

Iowa Highway 37 (Iowa 37) is an east–west road in the west-central part of the state. Iowa 37 begins just east of Turin at Iowa Highway 175. It ends 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Earling at U.S. Route 59. A small portion of the highway near Turin is designated as part of the Loess Hills Scenic Byway.

Route description

Iowa Highway 37 begins at an intersection with Iowa Highway 175 (Iowa 175) east of Turin and adjacent to Iowa 175's crossing of the Maple River. The first 1+¹⁄₂ miles (2.4 km) of the route are included in the Loess Hills Scenic Byway.^[2] The highway travels east and then southeast through the Loess Hills, a region of dunes east of the Missouri River created by wind-deposited silt from the Missouri River valley. At Soldier, Iowa 37 exits the Loess Hills and meets Iowa 183. From Soldier, the highway travels 13 miles (21 km) to the southeast to Dunlap. In Dunlap, Iowa 37 overlaps U.S. Route 30 (US 30) for ¹⁄₄ miles (0.40 km). Eastbound Iowa 37 overlaps westbound US 30; this phenomenon is known as a wrong-way concurrency. Between Dunlap and Earling, Iowa 37 travels in a stair-step path to the south and east for 13 miles. At Earling, the highway intersects the northern end of Iowa 191. Its last section is 4 miles (6.4 km) long, connecting Earling to US 59.^[1]

History

Originally, Iowa Highway 37 began at U.S. Route 75 in Onawa to U.S. Route 59 east of Earling. The westernmost 7+³⁄₄ miles (12 km) of the route were overlapped by Iowa 175. In 1966, Iowa 37 was truncated to its current western end near the Maple River.^[3] In 1971, a new section of US 59 was opened one mile (1.6 km) to the west of the former alignment. As a result, Iowa 37 was extended north one mile and east 6 miles (9.7 km) to Irwin, absorbing Iowa 268^[4] The section from US 59 to Irwin was short-lived. In 1980, the section east of US 59 was turned over to Shelby County.^[5]

Major intersections

See also

• Termini photos of Iowa 37 at Iowa Highway Ends.

References