The newly designated national bike route connecting St. Cloud to the North Dakota border will be called the Prairie Lakes Bicycle Route, the Minnesota Department of Transportation announced Thursday.
Prairie Lakes won 34% of the 3,655 votes cast in the public contest, followed closely by Glacier Lakes with 33% of the vote. Runners-up were MiddleSota, 21%; Rivers to Prairies, 7%; and Towns and Fields, 2%. The contest entry period ran from late June to mid-July.
MnDOT asked people to vote on the five naming options for the new route, unlike the department's "Name a Snowplow" contests that accepted submissions for names and garnered thousands of suggestions from the public. Those contests yielded the original names "Plowy McPlowFace" and "Betty Whiteout."
The five name suggestions for the new bicycle route were suggested by participants at a MnDOT event last year.
The 188-mile Prairie Lakes route uses existing trails and roadways to connect St. Cloud with Moorhead by way of Alexandria, Fergus Falls and Pelican Rapids. In the St. Cloud area, it connects the Lake Wobegon Trailhead in Waite Park to the Mississippi River and nearby Beaver Island Trail using city streets. But more than two-thirds of the route uses off-road trails, including sections of the Lake Wobegon, Central Lakes, North Country and Heart of the Lakes trails.
The route is part of the U.S. Bicycle Route System, a network of numbered routes crisscrossing the country with more than 18,000 miles in nearly three dozen states.
