Forgotten Monument Marks Ancient Roadway Across Michigan No One Remembers

There's a stone monument in northern Michigan that commemorates an ancient Native American trail across Michigan. Today it's largely been forgotten.

The Chippewa Trail is commemorated by a monument placed in Manistee.

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A now-fading monument was placed in 1924 along what is now US-31 at the northern Manistee city limits.

It reads (with some assistance from the Mighty Mac Facebook page):

THIS STONE MARKS

OLD TRAIL OF THE

CHIPPEWA INDIANS

...

Though the path finders die, the paths remain open

What's interesting about this trail is it's not one of the state's well known historic Native American trails.

The Sauk Trail (the path of modern day US-12), St Joseph Trail (today's I-94) and the Grand River Trail (I-96) crossed the state east to west while the Mackinac and Saginaw Trails went north-south through the central portion of the state.

There was no well traversed trail along the Lake Michigan coast.

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An 'Old Indian Trail' is marked between Cadillac and Traverse City - well inland from Manistee.

The Manistee Chippawa Trail could represent a north-south pathway today represented by US 31 - an early auto trail known as the West Michigan Pike. Histories of that early road make no mention of following a trail blazed by the earliest American.

The same likely holds true for an east-west routing to Manistee. That roadway, M-55, following Caberfae Highway and there's little to be gleaned of any deep historical significance to that route.

A search for a Chippewa Trail in Michigan turns up a hiking trail in Midland rather than a historic route through Manistee.

So it may remain a roadside oddity in Manistee, a forgotten path by the first Michiganders.