The Interstate Highway System, built nationwide mostly during the 1960s and ’70s, is widely regarded as the most ambitious and successful infrastructure project in the United States. Yet, as many residents of Ramsey County will recall, there are places where it was not accomplished without an epic battle waged by neighborhood groups seeking to protect their communities from the onslaught of the highway builders. Perhaps the greatest battle of all occurred here in Sr. Paul and lasted for more than a decade.

 

John Watson Milton was born and raised in the Summit Hill neighborhood of St. Paul. He graduated from St. Paul Academy and Princeton University. No stranger to politics, he was elected Ramsey County Commissioner (1970) and State Senator (1972 and 1976). In the past decade, he has completed six published book projects, won two national awards, and was a finalist in the Minnesota Book Awards. His most recent book was For the Good of the Order: Nick Coleman and the High Tide of Lib- eral Politics in Minnesota, 1971–1981, which was published by the Ramsey County Historical Society in 2012. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Society. This is his third article for Ramsey County History.