U.S. Route 61
U.S. Highway in the United States
U.S. Route 61 or U.S. Highway 61 (U.S. 61) is a major United States highway that extends 1,400 miles (2,300 km) between New Orleans, Louisiana and the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River and is designated the Great River Road for much of its route. As of 2004, the highway's northern terminus in Wyoming, Minnesota, is at an intersection with Interstate 35 (I-35). Until 1991, the highway extended north on what is now Minnesota State Highway 61 (MN 61) through Duluth to the Canada–U.S. border near Grand Portage, then continued to Thunder Bay, Canada, as Ontario Highway 61. Its southern terminus in New Orleans is at an intersection with U.S. Route 90 (US 90). The route was an important south–north connection in the days before the interstate highway system.
The highway is often called the Blues Highway because of its long history in blues music; part of the route lies on the Mississippi Blues Trail and is denoted by markers in Vicksburg and Tunica. It is also the subject of numerous musical works, with the route inspiring the album Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan.
Route description
Louisiana
US 61 in Louisiana is four-laned from its southern terminus in New Orleans to the Mississippi state line, where the highway continues to Natchez as a four-lane highway.
The section of US 61 from the Jefferson/Orleans Parish border to Baton Rouge is known as the Airline Highway.
“U.S. Route 61” enters the record as u.S. Highway in the United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Route, Highway and United can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“U.S. Route 61” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Route, Highway and United provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q409964. VIAF identifies the subject as 315529140. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004 and 1991.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “U.S. Route 61”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow U.S. Route 61 primary sources, U.S. Route 61 archive and Route research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “U.S. Route 61”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “U.S. Route 61” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.