Length 86.18 km | ||
 | ||
West end: WIS 54 / WIS 108 in Melrose East end: WIS 80 / WIS 82 in Elroy Counties Jackson County, Wisconsin, Monroe County, Wisconsin, Juneau County, Wisconsin | ||
State Trunk Highway 71 (often called Highway 71, STH 71 or WIS 71) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It runs in a diagonal southeast-northwest direction in southwest Wisconsin from Elroy to Melrose.
Map of WI-71, Wisconsin, USA
Highway 71, as originally laid out, ran from Elroy easterly to Mauston, and was at one time extended to a terminus near the Wisconsin River. In the mid-1950s a new bridge was built over the Wisconsin River, which connected Highway 71 with Highway 135 in Adams County, and minor realignments were made to accommodate this connection. The entire stretch from Elroy to US Highway 51 east of Oxford was then redesignated part of Highway 82, as it remains today, and Hwy 71 was cut back to its current eastern terminus at Highway 80/82 in Elroy. A short stub of the old roadway between Mauston and the Wisconsin River remains designated as "Old Hwy 71", now under local control.