Portal:U.S. roads/Selected article/February 2010

The incomplete Kickapoo Dam, which resulted in a rerouting of STH 131

State Trunk Highway 131 (often called Highway 131, STH 131 or WIS 131) is a 79.0-mile (127.1 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The highway is located in Wisconsin's Driftless Area, and it passes through Crawford, Vernon, Richland, and Monroe counties. It runs from WIS 60 near Wauzeka north to U.S. Highway 12 (US 12) and WIS 16 in Tomah. WIS 131 is maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).

WIS 131 was designated in 1923 on a road between Ferryville and Gays Mills. It was realigned and several times in the next fifteen years, and it ultimately connected Wauzeka and Tomah in 1948. The highway was rerouted in northern Vernon County in the 1970s in expectation of a new dam on the Kickapoo River; however, when the dam project stalled in 1975, part of the rerouting between Rockton and Ontario was put on hold as well. WisDOT consequently performed very little maintenance on this section of WIS 131 for two decades after the dam project stopped, and it fell into disrepair. The state ultimately rebuilt the highway in the early 2000s, and the refurbished highway opened in 2003.

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