For this week's Throwback Thursday we will not only take a look back, but also a look down, below our feet. We will look at the way we get from home to work, work to the beach and the beach to Chicago and beyond: roads. In particular Route 31, the West Michigan Pike also known as 'Michigan's Most Famous Road.'
Today it is relatively easy to hop on a train towards Chicago. Or take 94 north up towards St. Joseph. But Harbor Country didn't always have it so easy. Around the turn of the century, when logging slowed in the region, New Buffalo along with the rest of Southwestern Michigan began to shift towards the resort and tourism industries that continue to sustain the area today.
New Buffalo became known as 'The Gateway Michigan' and began to actively court the residents of 1900s Chicago who were looking for a quiet retreat from the industrial grind of the big city. Golf courses, parks and hotels began to pop up in town and along Grand Beach. But how would all these city folk head east for a weekend along the beach?
Long before paved highways there was just sawdust and sand. The automobile was far from the four wheel drive SUVs we see today and a trip that would take any of us a few hours could take a day, or more in the 1900s. To make travel from the city easier 'The West Michigan Lakeshore Highway Association' was founded in 1911. It was their job to assist in the construction of the first improved highway along Lake Michigan.
Completed in 1922, the West Michigan Pike extended from the Indiana state line to Mackinaw City and was advertised as 'lake shore all the way from Chicago to Mackinaw City.' It was incorporated into the first federal highway system in 1926 as US-31. And in 1929 the West Michigan Pike was re-routed and widened and with these final changes and improvements to the road a full blown tourism industry began to grow and flourish.
The West Michigan Pike state historic marker is located along New Buffalo's riverfront, on North Whittaker, just north of the bridge.
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