If the Legendary Route 66 Had Extended Into Michigan, Where Would it have Gone?

Nearly everyone has heard of America's legendary Mother Road, US Route 66. The long-decommissioned highway once ran from downtown Chicago to the Los Angeles area. Other than running into Lake Michigan, what stopped the legendary highway from entering Michigan?

The highway ran from the shore of Lake Michigan to the coast of the Pacific Ocean in a northeast/southwest alignment.

While the highway could have been routed into Chicago's southside into Northwest Indiana along Dunes Highway, we're going to imagine, like US 10 which officially crosses Lake Michigan on the ferry between Ludington and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

If US 66 didn't have its terminus at Adams and Michigan in Chicago but rather embarked on a ferry trip, we're going to expand an imaginary Route 66 on the same trajectory the highway ran between SoCal and Chitown.

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How Historic US Route 66 Could Have Been Routed Across Michigan

The imaginary expanded US 66 would enter Michigan near St Joseph/Benton Harbor. The roadway would follow very closely to the alignment of historic roads like Territorial or Michigan Avenue (a former alignment of US 12).

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From St Joe/Benton Harbor, the imagined US 66 would travel slightly northeasterly across Lower Michigan. That puts the roadway through Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Marshall and that just a little north of Jackson and Ann Arbor.

Through the Detroit area our pretend Route 66 would have run north of downtown in roughly the I-696 corridor from Southfield through Warren to St. Clair Shores.

Perhaps the Lake St Clair shoreline at Jefferson Avenue could have been the iconic opposite end from the Santa Monica Pier in California.

Before we leave the subject of Route 66, it's worth a mention to Michigan's M-66. A state highway bearing the same number as the Mother Road runs nearly the entire length of the Lower Peninsula from Sturgis to Charlevoix but does not get the same notice as the similarly numbered US 66.