Endpoints of
US Route 71

Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 1571 miles for US 71... however, that included the mileage of US 71's associated business routes.  According to the state subtotals on AASHTO's 1989 spreadsheet, mainline US 71's actual end-to-end total at the time was 1532 miles.  That is reasonably close to our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 1515.7 miles.  Want historic mileages?  Our handy reference book includes the mileages that were published in all 13 of AASHO/AASHTO's historic route logs (spanning the years 1927 to 1989).

The north end of US 71 has always been in International Falls.  In 1930, US 169 was also routed into I-Falls, but four years later the segment of US 169 from Virginia to I-Falls was renumbered as part of US 53.  Ever since then, the north end of US 71 occurs while co-signed with US 53; photos and more info on the International Falls page.

Originally the south end of US 71 was at Port Allen.  In 1941, the designation was extended across the Mississippi River to Baton Rouge; here is that agenda item from AASHO's meeting that year:

That is the historic south end of US 71, at "Old 190" (as the little green street sign refers to it).  Until 1951, US 71 continued to the east (left) with US 190, through Krotz Springs and on to Baton Rouge.  Today that direction is closed to traffic, but one can still drive to the right for a little ways.  The next shot is looking east on US 190 at the modern south beginning of US 71:

Research and/or image credits: David Backlin; Brent Ivy; Martin Karner; Alex Nitzman; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa