Why Does the Iconic and Historic Dunes Highway Not Extend Into Michigan – It Should

Dunes Highway just sounds like a road that should run through Michigan. From New Buffalo to Sleeping Bear Dunes, the Lake Michigan coastline has some of the best known and most majestic sand dunes in the nation.

However Dunes Highway stops short of Michigan and was never extended into the state.

The story goes back to the earliest days of American roadbuilding. An obvious route through the Midwest and Great Lakes was to connect Chicago and Detroit. Today that busy corridor is Interstate 94. When roads were first planned, it was known as the Chicago-Detroit Pike. The stretch of the road through Indiana passed right along the Indiana Dunes and was given the name locally of Dunes Highway.

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It might seem logical for the Dunes Highway name to continue into Michigan. After all, there are the Warren Dunes near Bridgman and Grand Mere Dunes at Stevensville before the highway would turn inland to make the trek across the state to Detroit.

But for whatever reason the name ends at the state line.

A potential Dunes Highway in Michigan would have been the route chosen for what was called the West Michigan Pike. This historic road, roughly today's M-63, A-2 and US 31 up the coast from St Joseph northward all the way to Mackinaw City passes near all the major dunelands along the stretch like in Saugatuck, Big Sable near Ludington and Sleeping Bear.

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Today US 12 follows the path of the historic Dunes Highway from Michigan City to Gary. The Dunes Highway name first appears on road signs east of downtown Gary where 4th and 5th Streets come together to form Dunes Highway.

West of downtown the former Dunes Highway takes the name Industrial Highway a nod to Northwest Indiana's drastic change in landscape from picturesque dunes to the heavy steel and petroleum refining factories of Gary, East Chicago, Whiting and Hammond.