Henderson is a very small town of 1,000 people on the west bank of the Minnesota River just south of the Minneapolis St. Paul metro area. It is very much an island city. While it connects to dry land most of the year, spring flooding on the Minnesota River threatens to erase Henderson from the state map. Citizens have fought back by enclosing the entire city in a large circular levee system.

MN-19 runs 198 miles across the state of Minnesota, starting within 5 miles of Wisconsin on the east and ending at South Dakota SD-30 on the west side. MN-19 crosses the Minnesota River twice. The easternmost of the two crossings is at Henderson. The other MN-19 Minnesota River crossing is the US-71/MN-19 bridge at Morton, Minnesota.