When the very first roads throughout the state of Michigan were constructed they followed rivers, railway, native routes and animal tracks. Michiganders still drive a lot of them today as I-94 runs parallel to the old Territorial Road, I-96 along Grand River and I-75 along Mackinac Trail.
When the very first pavement was laid in the mid-1910s, the path that today is Grand River Avenue was called theWolverine Pavedway An image from a 1916 road atlas shared to the Abandoned Old and Interesting Places in Michigan Facebook group programs West Michigan Pike along Lake Michigan (approximately today’s United States 31) and East Michigan Pike along Lake Huron (approximately today’s United States 23). The East and West Michigan Pikes satisfied atMackinac City Connecting the 2, the only blazed roadway throughout the lower peninsula ran along the Grand River passage from Detroit toGrand Haven It was identified either the Wolverine Highway or Wolverine Pavedway instead of today’s Grand River Avenue.
A New York Times article from 1916 bears the heading “ WOLVERINE PAVEDWAY Trans-State Road In Michigan to Connect Large Cities,” while a postcard from the era reveals a parade of cars and trucks each bearing an indication on the back stating “We’re assisting develop the Wolverine Pavedway.”
The May 25, 1916, Clare Sentinel reported
The “Wolverine Pavedway” is the name provided to the highway prepared from Detroit through Lansing and Grand Rapids toLake Michigan It is proposed to develop this roadway of concrete and currently it appears a guaranteed reality. Another massive job for which an association has actually been arranged in the structure of a concrete or brick highway from Chicago to Detroit.
When it pertained to paved roadways, it was the Grand River passage that came prior to either the passage followed by I-94 in the state’s 2nd tier of counties (Berrien-Van Buren-Kalamazoo-Calhoun-Jackson-Washtinaw-Wayne) or the southernmost cross-state path, today’s United States 12, the Chicago Road or Great Sauk Trail.
What’s unclear is when the Wolverine Pavedway/Wolverine Highway name headed out of style. But it plainly did, and now that highway is a forgotten part of Michigan’s motoring history.
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