America's Longest Straight Road

Hickson to Streeter, North Dakota

There's a well-worn riddle in the Peace Garden State:

Q: How do you turn on the cruise control in North Dakota?
A: Jump in the back seat.

There are a lot of very straight roads up here. One in particular, North Dakota Highway 46, is supposedly the straightest of them all -- plumb line straight -- the longest straight road in America. It stretches across 123 miles of north Dakota prairie from Hwy 30 in the west to a nameless county blacktop just past I-29 in the east, a steady 20 miles south of I-94.

Every "straight" road shifts a little bit here and there, bending just a bit around a rock or a tree or making an adjustment to cross a bridge. So does Hwy 46. But this road has a reputation, and it should be held to a higher standard. With this in mind, the best that offers -- its longest straight-as-an-arrow, lock your steering wheel and take a nap stretch -- extends nearly 31 miles, from Gackle to Beaver Creek. Compared to 123 miles that doesn't sound like much, but it's still impressive, especially for a two-lane blacktop.

There may be other, longer stretches of straight road in the lower 48 (I-80 from Wendover to Knolls across the Great Salt Lake Desert leaps to mind) but until someone drives them with one eye on the horizon and another on the odometer, ND 46 is the champion.

Note: This kind of civic claim brings out the best map zealots, and we've heard from two -- RVing Instructors Dave and Sandy Baleria. Their map software indicates this stretch is only 27 miles long. Our mistake may have been actually driving this highway in pre-GPS dimness, when the car odometer clocked 31 miles of apparent straightness. The "America's Longest Straight Road" assertion was in the official North Dakota tourism literature at the time.