The Wisconsin Great River Road National Scenic Byway is Wisconsin’s only All-American Road by Federal Designation of FHWA, and according to the Huffington Post, the Prettiest Drive in the Nation. The 250-mile Wisconsin Great River Road is part of the ten-state Great River Road National Scenic Byway, which follows the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Established in 1938 by Franklin Roosevelt, the Great River Road is America’s oldest and most distinguished byway. The communities along the Wisconsin Great River Road are among the oldest in the Midwest, with several having been established in the 1600s. Before European settlement, Native American tribes called the river corridor home. Today, visitors will see remnants of the Oneota, Hopewell, and other ancient tribes’ cultures in the burial and effigy mounds found up and down the Wisconsin Great River Road.

 

The miles of wetlands and untouched river-bottom forests that come together as the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge run along more than two-thirds of the Wisconsin Great River Road. These areas are protected as a result of an Act of Congress in 1924. The beautiful pools and winding channels that you see on the Mississippi River today are the result of the Lock and Dam system built in the 1930s.