I’ve been working with blogger Hoosier Reborn on having the Michigan Road named a state historic byway. We’re building a grassroots organization from communities along the route that will provide the support necessary to win the designation from the Indiana Department of Transportation. We have built support in the counties north of Indianapolis except for Clinton County (if you’re from there and would like to see the road so honored, please contact me!). We’re ready to expand our organization into the route’s counties south of Indianapolis. We have offers from Shelbyville, Greensburg, and Madison to host meetings, and we plan to follow through in November. We plan to submit the historic byway application to INDOT in the summer of 2010.
I’ve created a Web site to serve as an information hub for our efforts. It sketches the road’s history, gives turn-by-turn driving directions, and links to my personal site’s extensive photographic survey of the road. So for all things Michigan Road, please go to
I am just thrilled by how much enthusiasm there has been for this project. If you’re enthusiastic for it, too, and live on or near the road, contact me and we’ll add you to our e-mail list.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to read more about the Michigan Road, click the link above. Or check out what I’ve written on this blog about the road:
- A brief history of the road
- The 1872 Fairmount House in Madison
- An 1885 stone bridge in Ripley County
- Photos from under that bridge on a day the creek was dry
- Scenes from the road in Decatur and Shelby Counties
- The town of Pleasant View on an almost-forgotten original alignment
- Some historic homes in Indianapolis and a tree-lined original alignment
- An 1832 hand-built house in the former town of Augusta
- How the road in northwest Indianapolis became a major artery
- Stories from my trip through Fulton and Marshall Counties
- A longtime grocery on the road in South Bend burns to the ground
- Historic photos from Burlington, a town on the road in Carroll County
- The time I spun my car most of the way through Fulton
- The home of Plymouth’s first mayor, Horace Corbin
- The end of the road in Michigan City
- Announcing the Michigan Road Historic Byway effort
I have enough photographs and stories from my 2008 trips to write as many more posts! Maybe I’ll do that during the slow winter months.
Our effort has also gotten some press. The best coverage has come from the Pharos-Tribune in Logansport:
- Grassroots effort forming in support of historic byway
- Michigan Road (editorial in suppport of the project)
- Historic byway gaining support
- Byway effort moves ahead
I’m grateful for and excited about all the positive attention our project has received!
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