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The Michigan Road


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I have been slowly revamping and extending my Michigan Road pages at jimgrey.net. I think I've settled on the format and approach I want to use, so now it's a matter of writing the rest of the pages. I'm taking a county-by-county approach, going through all 14 of the road's counties in order. The only hitch was Marion County (Indianapolis); there's so much to see here it made for one loooooong page, so I broke it into three parts. Anyway, I have everything written from the Ohio River to the north border of Marion County now; more will come later.

 

http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/index.htm

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I have been slowly revamping and extending my Michigan Road pages at jimgrey.net. I think I've settled on the format and approach I want to use, so now it's a matter of writing the rest of the pages. I'm taking a county-by-county approach, going through all 14 of the road's counties in order. The only hitch was Marion County (Indianapolis); there's so much to see here it made for one loooooong page, so I broke it into three parts. Anyway, I have everything written from the Ohio River to the north border of Marion County now; more will come later.

 

http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/index.htm

 

Jim,

 

What can I say, but Woweee! Great! Easy to read, full of good stuff, I like the post cards, and great photos! The "definitive work" on the subject!

 

I have seen some of this before in earlier posts, but the Indianapolis section was new to me. I have only scanned it so far, but is that your new wheels in front of the Bar B Q Heaven? :rolleyes::D:lol:

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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WOW! When you say you've been writing, you're not kidding! I can't wait to dig in and read this "book" cover to cover. Nice touch adding the text boxes on the vids. A big hats off to stringing together the images of 86th & Michigan. General Data Viewer comes through again! Good job...looking forward to the 2nd half. BTW, have you figured the mileage...roughly at least....from start to end?

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Dave -- Yeah, I traded in my Matrix on an '83 Cavalier! The Indianapolis section was really time-consuming to write because there's so much happening on the road. I wrote the Hamilton County (next county north) page today -- two photos. There's only 1.75 miles of the road in that county. So I guess it all balances out!

 

Pat -- It was fun putting together that animation of 86th and Michigan. We are very fortunate to have the Indianapolis General Data Viewer, lemme tell you. It has been an outstanding resource. I may write more tonight and post it. I'm hoping to get the whole trip documented before the end of January. I'm meeting in Rochester on 1/31 with a bunch of historic preservation folks to start talking about getting the MR named a historic byway -- a preservation architect I know in Plymouth is spearheading this.

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I'm meeting in Rochester on 1/31 with a bunch of historic preservation folks to start talking about getting the MR named a historic byway -- a preservation architect I know in Plymouth is spearheading this.

 

Ah, your fame grows, but I can say "I knew him when....!" :P:rolleyes:

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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I've added writeups for Hamilton, Boone, and Clinton Counties to my Michigan Road pages. There's a lot of farmland in these counties, to be sure, and a couple small towns. I found a whole cache of 1920s postcards that show how the little town of Kirklin has hardly changed. Kirklin, by the way, stands at the intersection of the Michigan Road and the Newcastle-Lafayette State Road, which predates the Michigan Road by a few years and is currently signed as State Road 38. I also found an abandoned alignment of a state highway that crosses the Michigan Road in the itty bitty town of Middlefork, and found an abandoned school on it.

 

Here's a link to the Hamilton County page -- very brief, because only 1.75 miles of the Michigan Road are within the county! Use the nav bar at the bottom of the page to see the pages for the other counties.

 

http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/06_Hamilton.htm

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I've added writeups for Hamilton, Boone, and Clinton Counties to my Michigan Road pages. There's a lot of farmland in these counties, to be sure, and a couple small towns. I found a whole cache of 1920s postcards that show how the little town of Kirklin has hardly changed. Kirklin, by the way, stands at the intersection of the Michigan Road and the Newcastle-Lafayette State Road, which predates the Michigan Road by a few years and is currently signed as State Road 38. I also found an abandoned alignment of a state highway that crosses the Michigan Road in the itty bitty town of Middlefork, and found an abandoned school on it.

 

Here's a link to the Hamilton County page -- very brief, because only 1.75 miles of the Michigan Road are within the county! Use the nav bar at the bottom of the page to see the pages for the other counties.

 

http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/06_Hamilton.htm

 

Jim,

 

I have been revisiting earlier Michigan Road counties and taking the “side trips.” I remain awed by this project of yours. I don’t see how anyone else can approach it!

 

I just finished the side trip to Versailles. As a very trivial observation, you know it wasn’t for “some reason” that the Michigan Road auto trail (not THE Michigan Road) “bypassed” the original route. As you know, the supporters of the Michigan Road auto trail would have been most interested in its commercial aspects, notably advertising, membership, and increased customer traffic. They would have “detoured” Route 66 through town if that had been in any way plausible!

 

When will you be forming the Original Michigan Road Association? I ask because I remind you that as appointed Senior Vice President of the Hypotenuse Trail Association, you owe me one. :P I’m thinking that “Senior Western States Ambassador” would be fitting. ;):lol:

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

 

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I remain awed by this project of yours. I don’t see how anyone else can approach it!

 

I always appreciate your encouragement, Dave, and all I can say is that perhaps I have a touch of OCD!

 

As you know, the supporters of the Michigan Road auto trail would have been most interested in its commercial aspects, notably advertising, membership, and increased customer traffic.

 

Of course you're right! When I make my editorial pass through all the text, I'll be sure to update that paragraph to that effect.

 

I’m thinking that “Senior Western States Ambassador” would be fitting.

 

As soon as I form the Association, you can be Grand High Poobah if you want!!

 

Peace,

jim

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I always appreciate your encouragement, Dave, and all I can say is that perhaps I have a touch of OCD!

 

 

 

Of course you're right! When I make my editorial pass through all the text, I'll be sure to update that paragraph to that effect.

 

 

 

As soon as I form the Association, you can be Grand High Poobah if you want!!

 

Peace,

jim

 

Yah, I was going to suggest Poobah, but that was too much to dream! :lol:

 

Keep te Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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I have been slowly revamping and extending my Michigan Road pages at jimgrey.net. I think I've settled on the format and approach I want to use, so now it's a matter of writing the rest of the pages. I'm taking a county-by-county approach, going through all 14 of the road's counties in order. The only hitch was Marion County (Indianapolis); there's so much to see here it made for one loooooong page, so I broke it into three parts. Anyway, I have everything written from the Ohio River to the north border of Marion County now; more will come later.

 

http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/index.htm

Nicely done. Good documentation in a format that works. Definitely a future reference site.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I've uploaded pages for the next two Michigan Road counties, Carroll and Cass. Start here:

 

http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/09_Carroll.htm

 

I've also updated the Clinton Co. page a bit.

 

Jim,

 

I only did Carrol County, but what great stuff! Sycamore row alone would be worth the trip. It never occurred to me that trees would grow out of the logs used to plank the road! And it is amazing that the road was so narrow.

 

As a little bit of skepticism, is there a pre civil war house anywhere in Illinois or Indiana that wasn’t on the underground railroad? And BTW, who needed the underground railway in 1862. Run away slaves in Indiana weren’t going to be sent south again during the war!!

 

I have to "boast" a bit because I recall when you didn't know there were old buildings along the old roads, and I predicted you would get the bug. And now you are a "Then and Now" pro! No thanks to me of course, other than my great "predictive powers." :rolleyes:

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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I have been slowly revamping and extending my Michigan Road pages at jimgrey.net. I think I've settled on the format and approach I want to use, so now it's a matter of writing the rest of the pages. I'm taking a county-by-county approach, going through all 14 of the road's counties in order. The only hitch was Marion County (Indianapolis); there's so much to see here it made for one loooooong page, so I broke it into three parts. Anyway, I have everything written from the Ohio River to the north border of Marion County now; more will come later.

 

http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/index.htm

 

You're doing a great job with your site, Jim - I can't access it, even thru saved bookmarks and trying to come in thru Google.

 

All I can get is -

 

Not Found

The requested URL /Roads/MichiganRoad/index.htm was not found on this server.

 

:(

As for going to www.jimgrey.net I get a nice looking page that says

coming soon

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Mempis, TN [/b]

Edited by Alex Burr - hester_nec
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My site, The Jim Grey Page, is finally back up.

 

My old host, Vizaweb.com, kept going down for days at a time. After getting recommendations from several people, I decided to go with eVerity.com, which Denny recommended -- it offered the right flexibility and price, plus Denny's good recommendation. I just completed the file transfer.

 

My apologies for the interruption in service, but all is again well at jimgrey.net.

 

Thanks,

jim

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My site, The Jim Grey Page, is finally back up.

 

My old host, Vizaweb.com, kept going down for days at a time. After getting recommendations from several people, I decided to go with eVerity.com, which Denny recommended -- it offered the right flexibility and price, plus Denny's good recommendation. I just completed the file transfer.

 

My apologies for the interruption in service, but all is again well at jimgrey.net.

 

Thanks,

jim

Looks like a successful migration and I've now caught up with the latest (Fulton Co.) postings. Hope things keep working well.

 

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Marshall Co. is up, minus the usual level of research -- that's to come. http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/12_Marshall.htm

 

I met in Rochester today with about a half-dozen people to start talking about what it will take to get the MR names an Indiana Historic Byway. This designation is not worth very much by itself -- it's just a desgination the Indiana Dept of Transportation awards, period. If you want a byway signed, you have to fund that yourself, for example. And it doesn't protect the road or the structures on it. But it is a step toward those things, lending legitimacy to further preservation efforts. And it can provide a marketing opportunity for towns along the route to promote tourism.

 

So we had a fellow involved with Rochester's economic development, the Fulton County historian, the president of a preservation group in Logansport, a Logansport businesswoman with ties to historic preservation, a state representative, a college professor, Kurt (the preservation architect from Plymouth) and I, and a reporter from the Logansport Pharos-Tribune who interviewed several of us extensively about the project. We are trying to build a group from northern Indiana to start the ball rolling, but lack contacts in Carroll and Clinton counties. The Logansport duo said they thought they could secure some people from those counties, so we plan to give them time to do that and then meet again in May to organize an official committee. Then we will set about making contacts in Indy and in southern Indiana, so we have a statewide organization pushing for the designation. Our goal is to submit the app summer 2010.

 

Kurt's blog entry about the meeting: http://hoosierhappenings.blogspot.com/2009...e-michigan.html

 

Peace,

jim

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Great news, Jim! What's the plan of attack for finding contacts from Indy south? Is this going to be more of a lobbying group as opposed to a "Michigan Road Association" with a general membership?

 

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We're going to leverage Kurt's contacts in the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana to get in touch with people along the road from Indy south, primarily people who are involved in tourism, Chambers of Commerce, and other sympathetic organizations. If we build a coalition of such people in every county on the route, it should create the critical mass necessary to move this forward. We are not presently considering forming a general Michigan Road Association, but one could be a lot of fun. jim

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  • 2 weeks later...
Marshall Co. is updated with the usual historical stuff:

 

http://jimgrey.net/Roads/MichiganRoad/12_Marshall.htm

 

I'm working on St. Joe County now. Then LaPorte Co. and that's it.

 

 

Jim,

 

This road trip report is fantastic - there is a common theme running thru it that is very subtle and easy to miss. And that is small town America is still alive and well out there somewhere. It's just quietly snoozing in the mid-day sun. Most of these small towns along the Michigan Road will probably never change because they are not near large industrial centers - thus won't become over built, over crowded bedroom towns.

 

You've captured it all with this trip - it would be fun to do again in, say, 10 years to see how much (or how little) it has changed.

 

A note on the multi-colored house in the Marshall County segment (Wacky Paint Job) - we tend to look at the Victorian Era (around the 1880's period) as drab and dull. Actually, paint schemes like this were quite common on homes of that era. Sort of like saying "Look!!! I've got enough money to buy several different colored paints for my house!!!" A great example of this style can be found around the Cape May area in southern New Jersey. There was one area full of summer cottages that the residents banded together and restored. They were built in the late 1800's, early 1900's, and they have paint schemes like this.

 

The picture of the auto repair garage (two bays in front, one in back, tower against the front of the building). Going by the general layout and the tower I'll take bets that at one time that was the town garage.

 

Am slowly reading my way thru your trip - and enjoying every minute of it.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

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