M-35 (Michigan highway)

M-35
[[File:|300px|alt=]]
Route information
Maintained by MDOT
Length	125.45 mi (201.89 km)
Existed	c.1920–present
Major junctions
Major intersections	US 2/US 41/M-35 in Escanaba US 2/US 41/M-35 in Gladstone M-553 near Gwinn
Location
Country	United States
State	Michigan
Counties	Menominee, Delta, Marquette
Highway system
Michigan State Trunkline Highway System Interstate US State Byways
← M-34 → M-36

M-35 is a north-south highway in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was originally intended to run from Menominee in the south to near Big Bay in the north before turning toward L'Anse and eventually end at Ontonagon. The section through the Huron Mountains in northern Marquette and Baraga counties was never built. Some portions contructed were turned over to local control or redesignated as other state highways.

Current routing

M-35 is the faster highway between Menominee and Escanaba, running along a more direct alignment up the Lake Michigan shoreline. From Escanaba, M-35 runs concurrently with US 2 and US 41 to Gladstone. There it turns northwesterly through northern Delta County and southern Marquette County to end 3.6 miles (5.8 km) east of Negaunee near the former Marquette County Airport and studios of WLUC-TV6. It is primarily two-lane roadway except the section concurrent with US 2/US 41 where it is a four-lane divided highway.

Communities
Memominee Cedar River Escanaba Gladstone Brampton Perkins Rock McFarland Little Lake Gwinn Palmer Negaunee

Points of interest

The following landmarks are located along the route of M-35:

• Bay of Green Bay, Menominee to Ford River
• Delta County Airport, Escanaba
• Little Bay de Noc, Escanaba to Gladstone
• Escanaba River
• Gwinn listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the "Gwinn Model Town Historic District, Forsyth Township, Marquette County, Michigan".
• Empire Mine, Palmer

Historical notes

A section of the 1932 Michigan State Dept. of Highways road map showing M-35 in northern Marquette and Baraga counties.

When the highway was first created around 1920, M-35 was designated to run from M-12/M-15 (modern US 2/US 41) at Gladstone in the south to Palmer before terminating in Negaunee at M-15 (modern US 41). The M-91 designation was first created for a highway running from Memoninee northward to Cedar River. Around the creation of the U.S Highway System in 1926, M-35 was extended southerly along US 2/US 41 from Gladstone to Escanaba. From there, M-35 continued as a new highway along the Bay of Green Bay shoreline to Cedar River and supplanted the M-91 designation to Menominee.

M-35 in the Huron Mountains

In 1919, the State Department of Highways, forerunnner to today's MDOT determined a scenic shoreline trunkline to run north from Negaunee to Big Bay and then turn towards Skanee and L'Anse. The highway would continue from the L'Anse and Baraga area to eventually end at Ontonagon at an intersection with M-64. Local Upper Peninsula historian Fred Rydolm offers up the routing planned in 1925. "The plan extended the highway in a northwesterly direction, across the Dead River, over the Panorama Hills, then west past the Elm Creek swamp, along the south side of Burnt Mountain, across the Cedar Creek, the Cliff Stream and out past Cliff Lake to Skanee and L'Anse." This highway was designated as an extension of M-35, which then ended in downtown Negaunee. Work was completed on a significant portion of the routing in Marquette County by 1926. M-35 was routed east along M-15 toward Marquette before turning north-northwesterly toward Big Bay. This section of roadway follows the modern Marquette County Road 510. Similar work was completed in Baraga County connecting L'Anse and Skanee by 1932.

This left the portion through the Huron Mountains uncompleted. As this was the most difficult section to build, it was left for last, to be built from each side, meeting in the middle. This section of the routing was shown on state maps as a dashed line marked "IMPASSABLE". Sections not included in CR 510 still exist today as "Blind 35", a poorly maintained gravel road turning northwesterly from CR 510 near Big Bay. Rydhom adds, "the few miles of the road going to the Salmon Trout River, complete with guard rails and cement culverts, has been known as 'Dead End 35' ever since."

The Steel Bridge

The Steel Bridge carrying Marquette County Road 510 over the Dead River.

One major task completed early on was the bridging of the Dead River northeast of Neguanee. Interestingly, the bridge used not only previously spanned a different river, but one in a completely different state! According to MDOT, the MSHD bought the bridge in 1919, had it disassembled from its location in Pennsylvania where it crossed the Allegheny River upstream from Pittsburgh, and transported to Marquette County. In 1921, the MSHD erected this 271-foot long, one-lane span across the Dead River. The bridge survives to this day, carrying Co Rd 510 (the successor to M-35) traffic across the Dead River. It even survived a catastrophic flood in May 2003 when a dam upstream burst. Several other Dead River bridges were damaged or washed out, but this span survived, unscathed.

This bridge is known to locals as "The Steel Bridge". Plans are in the works by the Marquette County Road Commission to bypass the Steel Bridge with a modern replacement, but leave the existing bridge as a foot or bike path.

Henry Ford and M-35

The Huron Mountain Club recounts that Henry Ford "…had wandered the Upper Peninsula for years, looking for various means to keep his revolutionary production lines adequately supplied. In the late 1910s or early 1920s, he, Harvey Firestone and Thomas Edison dropped by the Club for a little visit while touring the lakes on Ford's yacht, the Sialia." His acreage in the UP provided wood used in the manufacture of Ford automobiles of the era. Ford had a saw mill set up in Alberta and a cottage at Pequaming along the shores of the Keweenaw Bay. He also had purchased 400,000 acres in the early 1920s. Ford desired entry into the exclusive Huron Mountain Club in northern Marquette County. With limited membership, Ford sought to "stack the deck" in his favor should a membership spot in the club open. Ford's membership would ultimately come with the cancellation of M-35 in the Huron Mountains.

"There were many who objected to the road — hunters, campers, hikers, fishermen and some landowners — and there seemed to be no groundswell of sentiment in favor of it, but it looked as the though the die was cast and nothing could be done to stop it." The Huron Mountain Club was not in favor of the highway either. "When they started putting Route M-35 through… the Club was having fits… They didn't have a ghost of a chance until finally they got an attorney general's opinion that if two-thirds of the property owners over which the road would pass objected, the road would be stopped." The proposed highway would not cross much Club property, only two 40-acre parcels. This property would not be enough to ensure the requisite ownership needed to halt road construction.

In 1926, a new president was elected at the Huron Mountain Club, and the admission rules were changed. Before the changes, a vote was taken of all the members, with four blackballs denying election to the membership. After the changes, only club directors would vote, with one objection necessary to block election. In 1927, the road grading was up to the Salmon Trout River. The same year, Ford purchased land near Mountain Lake in northern Marquette County in addition to his previous holdings. This property would encompass more than the requisite two-thirds necessary to stop further construction of the road. In 1928, the road was moved to connect with the Big Bay Road (CR 550) leaving the stub of "Blind 35" behind. "By 1929, M-35 was dead in its tracks and Henry Ford was a member." To commemorate his membership, Ford built a white pine log cabin at the Club costing between $80-100,000 at the time.

After Ford

Waste rock piles from the Empire Mine along M-35 southbound approaching Palmer.

In 1939, M-35 from Negaunee to Big Bay to L'Anse was officially canceled as a state highway. Constructed portions were turned over to local control, becoming Skanee Road in Baraga County and CR 510 in Marquette County. This left a discontinuous routing for 13 years. The southern segment of M-35 ran from Menominee to Negaunee, and the northern segment ran from Baraga to Ontonagon along the modern M-38. The two segments were rejoined in 1953, closing the gap left by the cancelled Huron Mountain routing. M-35 was continued westward from the end of the southern segment at Negaunee, cosigned along US 41/M-28 and US 41 to Baraga, to connect with the northern segment westward to Ontonagon.

In 1965, several abandoned underground mine shafts collapsed underneath the roadway. This forced a rerouting of M-35 out of the City of Negaunee. Previous to the rerouting, M-35 used part of what is now BUS M-28 through downtown Negaunee from US 41 north of town, connecting at Silver Street to County Road to run east out of town past Lucy Hill. This former segment is still shown on some maps, such as Google Maps, as "Old M-35".

Now M-35 runs from Palmer along the outskirts of Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company's Empire Mine past Goose Lake to end in Negaunee Township. Huge "mountains" of waste rock from the mine line the roadway leaving Palmer to the north. In Negaunee, the only naturbahn, or natural track, luge run in North America crosses the former routing of M-35 over the now abandoned street at the end of County Road at Lucy Hill.

The last major changes to M-35 came in 1968. The section from Baraga to Ontonagon was given the M-38 designation. The M-35 concurrencies were removed along US 41/M-28 and US 41 in Marquette and Baraga counties. This had the effect of moving the northern terminus to the present location in Negaunee Township. Since then, sections of the roadway were realigned in Richmond Township south of Palmer to straighten some of the many curves in the roadway between Palmer and Gwinn in 1989.

External links

• M-35 Endpoint Photos
• Former M-35 Western Terminus (now M-38)
• CR 510 Steel Bridge at MDOT
• Photo of Steel Bridge during 2003 Floods, City of Marquette website

County	Location	mi	km	Destinations	Notes
Menominee	Menominee	0.00	0.00	U.S. Route 41	Southern terminus
	Cedar River	24.9	40.1	G-12	Western terminus of G-12; To Stephenson
Delta	Escanaba	57.3	92.2	U.S. Route 2 U.S. Route 41
	Gladstone	61.0	98.2	County Road 426	Western terminus of CR 426; To Arnold
		62.3	100.3	U.S. Route 2 U.S. Route 41
Marquette	Little Lake	101.8	163.8	County Road 456	Eastern terminus of CR 456; To Skandia
	Gwinn	105.5	169.8	M-553	Southern terminus of M-553; To Marquette
		110.4	177.7	County Road 557	Northern terminus of CR 557; To Arnold
	Palmer	123.0	197.9	County Road 476	Eastern terminus of CR 476; To National Mine
	Negaunee Township	129.2	207.9	County Road 480	West to Negaunee, East to Sands Township
		131.2	211.1	County Road 492	Very short 400 feet (122 m) multiplex to cross railroad tracks; M-35 traffic yields to CR 492
		132.8		U.S. Route 41 M-28	Northern terminus