U.S. Route10 or U.S. Highway10 (US10) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway located in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the U.S. Despite the "0" as the last digit in the number, US10 is no longer a cross-country highway, and it never was a full coast-to-coast route. US10 was one of the original long-haul highways, running from Detroit, Michigan, to Seattle, Washington, but then lost much of its length when new Interstate Highways were built on top of its right-of-way.
In the state of North Dakota, US10 runs for about eight miles (13km), from I-94/US52 at exit343 to the Red River of the North. It is one of the primary east–west streets in West Fargo and Fargo and is called Main Avenue for its entire length in North Dakota. At the Red River, US10 crosses over a bridge to Moorhead, Minnesota.
US10 enters Wisconsin at Prescott and travels southeastward passing Durand, Neillsville, Marshfield, Stevens Point, and Appleton before reaching its eastern terminus near the Lake Michigan shore in Manitowoc. Ferry service between the western and eastern portions of US10 is provided between May and October by the ferry SSBadger.[7] US10 is now a four-lane divided highway from State Trunk Highway80 (WIS80) two miles (3.2km) south of Marshfield to I-39. This allows travelers to bypass Hewitt, Auburndale, Blenker, Milladore, Junction City, and downtown Stevens Point. This completes the plan to upgrade US10 to a freeway or expressway status from Marshfield to Menasha. US10 is an expressway between Stevens Point and Waupaca. It has been upgraded to a freeway in the Waupaca area and is also a freeway between Fremont and Appleton.
When the Joint Board on Interstate Highways submitted its report in October 1925 proposing the United States Numbered Highway System, Route No. 10 was planned to travel eastward from Seattle to Minneapolis–St. Paul, then southeast to Chicago, then northeast to Detroit. In the same proposal, U.S. Route 12 was intended to cross US10 near Minneapolis, travel eastward through Wisconsin, make use of the Lake Michigan ferry connecting Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to Ludington, Michigan, and then travel eastward to the same endpoint in Detroit.[10] In the finalized system, approved on November 11, 1926, these designations east of the Twin Cities were switched, with US10 using the ferry and US12 rounding the southern end of Lake Michigan at Chicago.[5]
Much of the former route of US10 was supplanted by I-90 and I-94 beginning in the 1960s, particularly from Seattle to Fargo. In 1970, Washington replaced its segment of US10 with State Route10. In 1977, the portion of US10 running through the Idaho Panhandle and western Montana, from the intersection with US95 Alternate east of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to the intersection with US93/MT200 in Wye, near Missoula, Montana, was decommissioned.[11] In 1986, the segment of US10 between Wye and West Fargo, North Dakota, was decommissioned, reducing the route to its current western terminus.[12]
Some sections of the old US10 road still exist in such cities as Bismarck, Missoula, Spokane, and between Cle Elum and Ellensburg as Washington State Route10 (SR10). The last section of I-90 to be completed was between Coeur d'Alene and Wallace in the early 1990s. Much of this route was conumbered as both I-90 and US10 until the final completion of I-90 through Idaho. Some decommissioned sections of US10 are designated I-90 Business (I-90 Bus.) or I-94 Bus. routes. At least four US10 Alternate (US10 Alt.) routes were used, including one from Spokane to Missoula from 1941 to 1967 via Sandpoint, Idaho (represented today by US2, State Highway200, MT200, and US93), US10 Alt. between US10 (4th Avenue S. and Dearborn Street in Seattle) and present-day US2 in Everett (Rucker Avenue and Hewitt Avenue) along US99[13], US10 Alt. between the western terminus of US10 and Issaquah along the pre-truncated version of SR900, and the Pintler Scenic Route through Philipsburg, and Anaconda, renamed MT1 when Montana's US10 was decommissioned in 1986. US10 split between Garrison and Three Forks into US10N and US10S from 1936 until 1960.[14] US10N through Helena and dropping into Three Forks, while the Southern section of the split followed US10's traditional routing through Deer Lodge and Butte, Montana, to get across the Rocky Mountains.[15] Previous to the split, US10N was designated as another US10 Alt.[16]
At the eastern end, US10 originally went south from Midland to Saginaw, Michigan, on what is now highway M-47. It then joined up with US23 in Saginaw and continued south until it split from US23 near Flint. It then continued southeast as the Dixie Highway to Pontiac, where it followed Woodward Avenue, now designated M-1. From there, US10 continued on an almost straight line to Downtown Detroit, where it intersected US16, US25, and US12.[8]
In the 1970s, US10 was rerouted off Woodward Avenue in Metro Detroit and onto the John C. Lodge Freeway (formerly Business Spur696, now M-10) and Telegraph Road. The segment of US10 between Detroit and Bay City, Michigan, was decommissioned in 1985,[17] at which point the Lodge Freeway was redesignated to M-10.
US10 has had alternate routes designated in the past, but none are active as of 2017. A multistate alternate route between Washington and Montana was largely replaced in 1947 by the western extension of US2 and later decommissioned entirely in 1967.[19][20]
↑Special Committee on U.S. Route Numbering (July 6, 1977). "Route Numbering Committee Agenda"(PDF) (Report). Washington, DC: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. p.485. Retrieved March 9, 2026– via Wikimedia Commons.
↑Special Committee on U.S. Route Numbering (June 9, 1986). "Route Numbering Committee Agenda" (Report). Washington, DC: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. p.561. Retrieved March 9, 2026– via Wikisource.
↑Rand McNally & Company (1948). Seattle City Map. Seattle, WA: Union Oil Company.{{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
↑Montana State Highway Commission; H.M. Gousha (1936). Map of the Montana State Highway System(PDF) (Map). Scale not given. Chicago: H.M. Gousha. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
↑Montana State Highway Commission; Rand McNally & Company (1930). Map of the Montana State Highway System(PDF) (Map). c. 1:1,393,920. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
↑Montana State Highway Commission; H.M. Gousha (1935). Map of Montana(PDF) (Map). Scale not given. Chicago: H.M. Gousha. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
↑Special Committee on U.S. Route Numbering (October 11, 1985). "Route Numbering Committee Agenda"(PDF) (Report). Washington, DC: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. p.567. Retrieved March 9, 2026– via Wikimedia Commons.
↑Idaho Department of Highways; Rand McNally & Co. (1967). Official Highway Map of Idaho (Map). c. 1:1,425,600. Boise: Idaho Department of Highways. Retrieved September 6, 2020– via Flickr.
