Iowa Highway 143 (Iowa 143) is a north–south state highway in northwestern

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

. The highway is long. The route was designated in 1926 when its original number, Primary Road No. 75 was reused for U.S. Highway 75. It was originally a short

spur route A spur route is a short road forming a branch from a longer, more important road such as a freeway, Interstate Highway, or motorway. A Bypass route, bypass or beltway is not considered a spur route as it typically reconnects with another or the ...

into

Marcus Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to: * Marcus (name), a masculine given name * Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name Places * Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44 * Mărcuş, a village in Dobârl ...

, but was extended north to Iowa 10 in 1938. From 1941 to 1961, the highway extended south from Iowa 3 / Iowa 5 to the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

– Woodbury county line.

Route description

Iowa 143 begins at an intersection with Iowa 3 at the southeastern corner of the city limits of

. Iowa 3, an east–west highway, meets D Avenue, which carries County Road L36 (CR L36) south of the intersection and Iowa 143 north. Heading north through Marcus along Ames Street, the highway passes a municipal golf course, cemetery, and

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

. The residential area of Marcus ends abruptly at a

Chicago Central and Pacific Railroad The Chicago Central and Pacific Railroad is part of the Illinois Central Railroad (IC), which is owned by the Canadian National Railway (CN) through the Grand Trunk Corporation. Operationally, the Chicago Central & Pacific is designated as the Io ...

line on the northern edge of town. North of Marcus, the route runs due north on a two-lane road through the farmland of rural

and O'Brien counties. The terrain is flat, only rising and falling between in elevation. before the northern end of the highway, it intersects CR B60, which leads to Germantown. Iowa 143 ends at an intersection with Iowa 10 between Granville and Paullina. The roadway continues north as CR L36.

History

The road that would become Iowa 143 was called Primary Road No. 75 (No. 75) when the Primary Highway System was created in 1920; it was a short

that connected No. 5 to Marcus. When the

U.S. Highway System The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...

was created in 1926, No. 75 became Iowa 143 as the 75 designation was applied to U.S. Highway 75. The spur was paved in mid-1937. In 1941, the highway extended south to the

– Woodbury county line north of Correctionville. In the early 1960s, Iowa 143 was paved between Marcus and Iowa 10, while the segment south of Iowa 3 / Iowa 5 was turned over to Cherokee County.

Major intersections

References

{{Attached KML 143