Authorized by the North Dakota 48th Legislative Assembly, this highway honors the 164th Infantry Regiment of the North Dakota Army National Guard, whose lineage began in 1885 as the First Dakota Infantry. Mustered on 20 May 1898 as the First North Dakota Volunteer Infantry, it served in the Spanish American War and the Philippine Insurrection, entered federal service on 18 June 1916 for duty on the Mexican Border, and was redesignated the 164th Infantry Regiment on 4 October 1917 for World War I service with the 41st Division in the European Theatre of Operations as a replacement division. During World War II, the 164th Infantry Regiment of the Americal Division became the first U.S. Army unit to take offensive action against the enemy in either theatre of operation when it reinforced the First Marine Division on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands on 13 October 1942. Its men received the U.S. Navy Presidential Unit Citation for their part in the battle of Henderson Field on 23-26 October 1942, and the regiment spent nearly 600 days in combat, suffering 325 killed in action and 1193 wounded. Its soldiers earned 1 Navy Cross, 6 Distinguished Service Crosses, 89 Silver Stars, 199 Bronze Stars, 7 Legions of Merit, 10 Soldier's Medals, and approximately 2000 Purple Hearts, and the regiment also received the Republic of the Philippines Presidential Unit Citation. Ordered to federal service on 16 January 1951 for the Korean War, it was assigned to Ft. Rucker, Alabama, as a training regiment, and its individuals were transferred to other units for service in the Korean Theatre of Operations before it was disbanded and reorganized into engineer units in 1955. Its campaign credits include Manila in the War with Spain; Manila, Laguna de Bay, and San Isidro in the Philippine Insurrection; World War I; and Guadalcanal, Northern Solomons, Leyte, and Southern Philippines in World War II. The regiment's motto was JE SUIS PRET, meaning I Am Ready, and its distinctive insignia reflected its infantry service, the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and World War I service with the 41st Division. Before World War II, the regiment served with the 34th Infantry Division, then with the Americal Division, the only unnumbered division in World War II, and members attached to the First Marine Division on Guadalcanal were authorized to wear the Marine division patch. In 1946 the 47th Infantry Division was organized in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, and by late January 1951 many of its men were at Camp Rucker, Alabama, training draftees before reassignment, with many going to Korea. In the spring of 1899, during an expedition against insurgent strongholds north of Manila, 16 North Dakotans joined Henry Young's elite scouting and reconnaissance force, Young's Scouts. When the scouts found an important bridge set on fire and the river below unfordable, 22 scouts rushed the bridge and extinguished the flames under direct fire from about 600 insurgents. Fourteen guardsmen received the Medal of Honor for these actions on 13 and 16 May 1899, including ten members of Young's Scouts and seven men from the First North Dakota Infantry.