Ionia and Houghton Lake State Road: Michigan's first designated state swamp land road, 1989.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Ionia and Houghton Lake State Road: Michigan's first designated state swamp land road, 1989.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55802497

The Ionia and Houghton Lake State Road was built as per Michigan Act No. 117 of Feb. 12, 1859, an Act to "provide for the drainage and reclamation of swamp lands by means of state roads and ditches." The law provided for a state road to be built from/near Ionia in Ionia County to Houghton Lake in Roscommon County, and nine other roads. The road was completed by Sept. 1876. Sections of the road ran through Ionia, Montcalm, Isabella, Clare, and Missaukee counties. The road was an important route of access to increasing numbers of interested lumbermen and emigrants who travelled to the northern lower peninsula for lumber and farming purposes. However, when land from Clare County (Mich.) northwards was found to have sandy soil, which was poor for farming, the road fell into disuse within 15 years of its completion. (Information from the paper.).

50 p. typed paper, including 5 p. of endnotes (copy), April 1989.

Clarke Historical Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7711878

Related Entities

There are 1 Entities related to this resource.

Keenan, Hudson

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w09bz0 (person)

Keenan is a Michigan author and Isabella County (Mich.) resident and historian. From the description of Ionia and Houghton Lake State Road: Michigan's first designated state swamp land road, 1989. (Clarke Historical Library). WorldCat record id: 55802497 ...