WHY ARE THEY CALLED STATE "TRUNK" HIGHWAYS?

The Wisconsin State Legislature created the Wisconsin State Trunk Highway system in 1917, the first governmental body of any kind in the world to identify roads by number.

The term trunk deals with any transportation entity with "connecting characteristics". Consequently, railroads connecting cities or areas where freight can be hauled, main telephone cables connecting networks, or even county roads connecting farms to markets can all be classified as "trunk". You may have heard of "trunk lines" as they pertain to railroads; the term "State Trunk Highway" was designed to assign numbers to road the state considered significant in terms of what they connected.

As the legislation from 1917 stated, Wisconsin's counties would be able to maintain separate "County Trunk Highways", too:

"Whenever any highway, road or street, or combination of the same, shall pass through or connect two or more towns, cities or villages, or parts thereof, the county board in which the same is located may, by resolution, adopt the same as a trunk road"

You can download and view a PDF of the legislation by CLICKING HERE, courtesy of WisDOT officials.

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