State Highway 32 serves as a north–south route between Tansem Township, Twin Valley, Fertile, Red Lake Falls, Thief River Falls, and Greenbush in west-central and northwest Minnesota.

The route passes through the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in Polk County, east of Crookston, west of Erskine.

[1] At this time, it ran from State Highway 8 (present-day U.S. 2) east of Crookston to Greenbush.

By 1923, the road was mostly graveled, with a section of unimproved dirt between Holt and Middle River and another north of Strathcona.

[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] South of U.S. 2, the first section of highway to be paved was from the junction with then-Highway 31 (now Highway 200) north of Twin Valley to a point just south of Fertile in 1937;[15][16] paving was extended into both Fertile and Twin Valley in 1940,[17][16] as well as from U.S. 10 to Hitterdal (although part of the latter segment was reverted to gravel in 1943).