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This drawing was originally published in 1921 and has been reprinted in 1996 by the Montana Department of Transportation in cooperation with the Pioneer Museum in Glasgow, Montana and the Montana Historical Society.

Bay County Played Important Role in Michigan Highway System Development

Historic Auto Trails Also Run Through Nation's Most Famous Little Town

February 22, 2011       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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The more I write about Bay County and Bay City the more I am prompted to think: This may be the most famous little town in America -- certainly in Michigan.

Or, at least one of the most famous, since every town has its moments of fame and hometown heroes who won fame.

The latest nugget of Bay fame to catch my eye is a story on MichiganHighways.org, listing Bay as initiating "the first significant improvements in the administration of Michigan highways."

That came in 1883 when the state legislature passed Public Act 278 which created a Stone Road District in eight townships of Bay County. The Bay County plan enlarged the road district, providing funds for road improvements over a larger area.

Dorothy G. Pohl, managing director of the Ionia County Road Commission, and Norman E. Brown, of the Michigan Department of Transportation, have documented the history of roads in Michigan.

"The features of the Bay County Act, strongly supported by good roads leaders, resulted in the passage of the County Road Law in 1893 which permitted a county, by a vote of the people, to establish a county road commission and levy a road tax. By 1916, 59 (of 83) counties had followed suit," wrote Pohl and Brown.

Also, did you know that Bay County is on the East Michigan Pike? That almost unknown road runs from Toledo, Monroe, Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Saginaw and Bay City north to Mackinaw City.

Bay City is also on the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway, again originating in Ontario, running to Detroit and stretching north to the Upper Peninsula and into Wisconsin.

Roosevelt himself was a keen advocate of highways, stating: "It goes without saying that I appreciate the value of highways. Fundamentally they are the basis on land of the great net work of trade routes which go to make up civilization. History has again and again shown that often countries rise and fall and cities wither or flourish on account of trade routes. The Venetian republic was, in my opinion, destroyed by Vasco de Gama when he made is celebrated voyage of discovery, circumnavigating Africa. He, at that time opened up trade routes through which the East India trade flowed and which automatically dried up the more difficult ones across Asia Minor on which Venice was depending. The Roman empire was held together by its roads. Their importance is evidenced by the fact that many of them are in use now. I myself have marched to battle through northern France over the old Roman Roads."

Mark Van Ells has written in the Journal of American Culture: "The Theodore Roosevelt International Highway spans more than 4,000 miles from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon by way of Ontario, Canada. Created at the dawn of the automobile age, the route is all but forgotten today.

"Max J. Skidmore, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, decided to jump into his pickup truck and drive the entire length of the highway. Moose Crossing: Portland to Portland on the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway is the travel narrative of his transcontinental voyage.

"While vacationing in Montana in 1996, Skidmore came across a monument to Roosevelt and the highway. He was intrigued by the massive scale of the project, and wondered why it had faded from public view. Skidmore pieced together information on this long-forgotten road and decided to travel the length of the old route himself the following year in order to learn more about it. The title is a double entendre, referring to the frequency of "moose crossing" signs along this far northerly route, as well as Roosevelt's bid for the presidency in 1912 under the banner of the "Bull Moose" Progressive Party."

This, of course, revives more notice for Bay City since Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party began its brief rampage in the National Guard Armory (now the Bay County Historical Museum) here at the Michigan Republican State Convention in 1912. (Watch for more details in another column later on MyBayCity.com).

Bay City also is listed on the Top of Michigan Trail, also known as the Northern Michigan Tourist Pike. This road runs from Toledo through Saginaw and Bay City, Auburn and Midland to the straits.

The 1848 "General Plank Road Act" was passed by the Michigan Legislature to regulate the operations of plank road companies, one of which had laid a road from Detroit to Port Huron in 1849.

As plank roads proliferated, most with toll gates to extract the pennies thought to be needed for their maintenance, it was found that actually dollars were required.

Local historian and former newspaper reporter Tim Younkman has studied the nefarious activities, and in some cases horrendous crimes, that occurred on one such stretch of plank road: Tuscola from Columbus to Cass. We expect to hear more from Tim about those activities in the future.

Famed author and lecturer Mark Twain, traveling to Grand Rapids to give a talk, remarked that the road would not have been bad "if some unconscionable scoundrel had not now and then dropped a plank across it," Pohl and Brown reported.



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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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