It continued easterly through St. Paul, through Lake Elmo and terminated in Stillwater near the Wisconsin state line.

It then leaves the Minnesota River valley to pass through farming areas until Glencoe, where the terrain gradually becomes more hilly as the road continues east.

[2][3] As the route approaches the Twin Cities, the road becomes a freeway running parallel to, but not within, the Minnesota River valley.

The overlapped routes pass by the entrance to Camp Release State Park, a 14-acre (57,000 m2) park where the former Sioux village of Chief Red Iron was located, and which also contains a 51-foot (16 m) granite monument commemorating the release of 269 prisoners from Sioux captivity.

For the next 28 miles (45 km), US 212 passes through a series of small cities in this area: Sacred Heart, Renville, Danube, and Olivia.

US 212 continues due east through more farmland, again passing through a series of small cities that developed along the route.

Brownton, which is located on Buffalo Creek, is the site of the Sioux Uprising, one of the earliest massacres of white settlers in the region.

[citation needed] Several miles later, US 212 is joined by MN 22; US 212 becomes a four-lane divided highway heading east into the city of Glencoe closely following Buffalo Creek.

After leaving Norwood Young America, US 212 becomes a two-lane road, passing by several lakes, continuing east for several miles to the city of Cologne.

[15] East of Norwood Young America, the Yellowstone Trail utilized MN 5, shifting to Excelsior Boulevard via the Minnewashta Parkway to reach Minneapolis.

[13] The westernmost section of present-day US 212, from the South Dakota line to Montevideo, was also part of another auto trail known as the Short Cut West Highway.

Between Montevideo and the Twin Cities area, the Short Cut West Highway ran along MN 7 until Lake Minnewashta, where it ended at the Yellowstone Trail.

US 212 was originally designated as a route that connected US 85 in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, with US 12 in Willmar, Minnesota.

In the Twin Cities area, US 212 utilized Flying Cloud Drive and Vernon Avenue to reach Excelsior Boulevard.

Several other segments were reconstructed in 1990, namely the old Flying Cloud Drive alignment, which became a four-lane divided surface arterial, and the MN 5 overlap, which became an expressway.

[18] The section of the route between Glencoe and Chaska currently alternates between a 65-mile-per-hour (105 km/h), four-lane expressway and a 60-mile-per-hour (97 km/h) two-lane roadway.

Counties and cities along US 212 are lobbying to extend the four-lane divided highway west of Glencoe.

Mineta presented a $2.9 million check (Federal Highway Administration grant) to state transportation officials.

[citation needed] On December 7, 2007, a six-mile (9.7 km) portion of the project from Dell Road in Eden Prairie to MN 41 in Chaska opened to traffic, giving drivers use of about half of the new freeway alignment.