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  Check out Highway 11   Check out Highway 13   Check out Highway 16
  Check out Highway 19   Check out Highway 20   Check out Highway 21
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  Check out Highway 81   Check out Highway 82   Check out Highway 83
  Check out Highway 89   Check out Highway 96   Check out Highway 100
  Check out Highway 108   Check out Highway 113   Check out Highway 131
  Check out Highway 133   Check out Highway 144   Check out Highway 145
  Check out Highway 164   Check out Highway 167   Check out Highway 169
  Check out Highway 175   Check out Highway 188   Check out Highway 190

   ...more to come, including the U.S. Highways in Wisconsin!

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So why is it called
 a State “Trunk” Highway?


"Cutting between West Salem and Melrose"

 Click here for a map overview

Southern terminus: La Crosse County, at Highway 16 in West Salem

Northern terminus: Jackson County, at Highways 54 & 71 in Melrose

Mileage: about 19 miles

Counties along the way: La Crosse, Monroe, Jackson

Sample towns along the way: West Salem, Mindoro, Melrose

Quickie Summary: State “Trunk” Highway 108 is a short but very scenic ride through Wisconsin's "Driftless Area". A popular motorcycle ride as well as drive or bike ride, Highway 108 is best known for the "Mindoro Cut", which cuts through a particularly beautiful area where the highway twists, turns and zigzags. Highway 108 has essentially been the same route since 1919...why mess with such a great drive?

The Drive (South to North): Highway 108 begins at Highway 16 in West Salem (pop. 4,738), home of Pulitzer-prize winning author Hamlin Garland, the La Crosse Fairgrounds and Speedway, and two octagon-shaped houses, one of which is Garland's homestead. It zigzags a bit before heading north to ride along part of Eggins Coulee and then down into a series of valleys. We have to take this drive ourselves soon, but in the meantime, here a YouTube view from a motorcyclist's perspective heading along Highway 108:

The main feature along Highway 108, and what makes it worth a State Trunk Tour drive, is the Mindoro Cut, a passage hand-cut through rock in 1908 (to give you an idea of how long ago that was, that was the last year the Chicago Cubs won a World Series.) It began when the townspeople of Mindoro wanted to create a short cut to their nearest big city, La Crosse. While the rock proved harder to chip, ax and slice through than they anticipated, they eventually got their short cut - and then they probably rested for several years because that sounds like pretty exhausting work if it's done by hand.

State Trunk Tour Fact:
The Mindoro Cut was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
The historic marker for the Mindoro Cut pretty much gives all the handy details: hand-cut, 74 feet deep, 25 feet wide, and the second-largest hand-hewn cut in the nation.
(Left and above photos courtesy of UW-Stevens Point.)

In tiny Mindoro, you can check out the Bell Coulee Shelter, a prehistoric rock shelter that was inhabited by people in the cave-dwelling days. It's a popular site with anthropologists, archeologists and others who marvel at people who didn't have cell phones, DVR or iPods.

Past Burr Oak, Highway 108 heads into Jackson County and hooks up Highway 71, which comes in from Sparta. After crossing the Black River, the two highways combine for the ride to the northern end, at a junction with Highway 54. You can use 54 to head west toward Winona, Minnesota, or northeast toward Black River Falls.

In Melrose at junction with Highway 54, looking back toward Highway 108's path back toward the Mindoro Cut and West Salem.

CONNECTIONS
South Terminus:
Can connect immediately to: Highway 16
Can connect nearby to: I-90, about 2 miles south

North Terminus:
Can connect immediately to: Highway 54, Highway 71

Upcoming events in places along Highway 108:
June Dairy Days, West Salem, June 4-6, 2010




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