Minnesota State Highway 7

Trunk Highway 7
MN 7 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by MnDOT
Length	194.174 mi[3] (312.493 km)
Existed	c. 1933[1][2]–present
Tourist routes	Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway
Major junctions
West end	MN 28 near Beardsley
Major intersections	US 12 / US 75 at Ortonville US 59 / MN 119 at Appleton US 59 / MN 29 at Montevideo MN 23 at Clara City US 71 near Blomkest I-494 at Minnetonka US 169 at Hopkins
East end	MN 100 at St. Louis Park
Location
Country	United States
State	Minnesota
Counties	Big Stone, Swift, Chippewa, Kandiyohi, Meeker, McLeod, Carver, Hennepin
Highway system
Minnesota Trunk Highway System Interstate US State Legislative Scenic
← MN 6 → US 8

Minnesota State Highway 7, or Trunk Highway 7, (MN 7, TH 7) is a state highway in Minnesota, which runs from its intersection with MN 28 near Beardsley and continues east to its terminus with MN 100 and County Road 25 (CR 25) in St. Louis Park. The highway runs east–west for approximately 194.2 miles (312.5 km) through mostly rural farmland in the central part of the state. On its western end, it is part of the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway where it runs northwest–southeast along the Minnesota River and associated lakes near the border with the adjoining state of South Dakota. For roughly 24 miles (39 km) of its route, it runs concurrently with U.S. Highway 59 (US 59) between Appleton and Montevideo. In Montevideo, the highway turns to the east cutting across the state. It passes through several small towns before entering the Twin Cities metropolitan area. In the metro area, MN 7 follows an expressway through several suburbs before terminating in St. Louis Park. Two different segments have been listed on the National Highway System, system of roads considered important to the country.

The highway was first designated along a series of roads between Appleton and Minneapolis around 1933. At first these roads were a mixture of gravel and bitumen surfaces, the latter a forerunner of today's asphalt. Within the first year or so, the western end was extended to terminate MN 7 in the Ortonville area. In 1958, the highway was extended to its modern western terminus at Beardsley by replacing another trunk highway. The section that is now an expressway in the Twin Cities was expanded by the 1950s, and the whole highway was paved in a hard-surface by the end of that decade. The highway was truncated in the Twin Cities to its current eastern terminus in the 1980s. The scenic byways designations were applied at the state and federal levels in 1995 and 2002, respectively.