Near Two Harbors, 34 structures burned and Highway 61 closed; in Crow Wing County, a 1,600-acre fire sparked evacuations

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Other than the fact there are no billboards and lots of trees, there's nothing to help southern Minnesota motorists realize that Minnesota Highway 22 between Mankato and Mapleton is a particularly patriotic stretch of highway. But it is.

After World War II, area residents planted trees to honor service members in a living tribute that has become known as Victory Highway. The locals planted more than 1,000 trees, each one honoring a local vet.

But trees grow, roads need to be widened to accommodate an increase in traffic and safety standards change and now the trees have to go, the 

"The governor's office called us ... 'Why are you removing 600 trees?'" said Rebecca Arndt, a Minnesota Department of Transportation public information official, said Tuesday at another public hearing on the project.

The new stretch will include smaller trees, shrubs, prairie grasses and wildflowers instead, the paper says.

It's the sort of project that requires a little more sensitivity than the typical road reconstruction project, evidenced by this video MnDOT released Tuesday.

The process of tree removal requiring detours will begin this year. The replacement design for Victory Drive Memorial Corridor will be installed in 2019, according to 

NewsCut

Bob Collins

Author

After World War II, area residents planted more than 1,000 trees to honor service members in a living tribute on Minnesota Highway 22 between Mankato and Mapleton. But road needs change and now the trees must go.

In road reconstruction, trees honoring veterans need to be cut down

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