If you’ve not had the good fortune to discover Michigan routes that hold both history and beauty in any season, and especially in fall, plan a color tour along two of the state’s “old roads”: U.S. Highway 12, running east and west between Chicago and Detroit, and U.S. Highway 31, leading north from the Michigan state line.
In the last century, thousands used them to set off to new lives by wagon, coach, horse and on foot. At the end of this century, they can take you through towns big and small, past country inns and resorts, and through woods afire with the yellows, oranges and reds of the season. Here are some highlights on both roads.
U.S. HIGHWAY 12
This road is one of the Midwest’s most historic routes, and because Lower Michigan’s countryside is covered with maples and oaks, one of the best fall color drives comes mid- to late-October. Tiny towns dot the route, which also is a prime destination for antiques lovers. Life in the fast lane slows down along these roads. Silos are the tallest structures on the horizon.
Historic homes, country inns and inexpensive mom and pop motels and resorts nestled on lakes along this former stagecoach route make this a great fall weekend getaway.
The road waves a hello at the Indiana line near Grand Beach, passing $250,000 lakeside “cottages,” many built for Chicagoans. It moves on into New Buffalo, and east through farm fields and huge, roadside oaks.
If the muse strikes, pull off into Three Oaks, home of Ed Drier’s Civil War-era Union Market for homemade meats. Niles is next, the state’s only city to have been under the flags of France, England, Spain and the U.S.
Sturgis is in Amish country. Watch for the “plain people” and their horse-drawn buggies. Outside Coldwater, stay in the Batavia Inn, built in 1872. In Coldwater, the Chicago Pike Inn was built in 1903. Have a malt and a burger at the B&K Root Beer Stand.
Coldwater also is the western end of Michigan’s beautiful Irish Hills, named by early immigrants who said the green gumdrop hills piled up by glaciers reminded them of their home. This is where fall in southern Michigan gets serious. Oak, maple and other hardwoods cover the countryside as the road ducks and weaves over hills and around corners, beckoning to follow along.
Old farms have spawned a booming antiques business. The tiny town of Allen calls itself Michigan’s antique capital, with about a dozen stores. A mural at Michiana Antiques explains that Moses Allen founded the town in 1829. Step inside, walk the creaking floors of this 1865 grocery and find your own treasure.
You’ll also pass Michigan Speedway, which hosts Indy and NASCAR races each summer. Near Moscow, a roadside park honors Father Gabriel Richard, whose efforts as a 19th Century Michigan Congressman began this road, then known as the Great Sauk Trail and later the Chicago Road.
Other touristy attractions are located in the heart of the hills, like Stagecoach Stop USA, a replica pioneer town across from Hayes State Park, and the Irish Hills twin viewing towers, here since the 1920s. Near Tipton, just south of U.S. 12, take a six-mile one-way scenic drive at Hidden Lake Gardens, operated by Michigan State University.
Stop for lunch at the Davenport House, an 1839 stagecoach inn. Or, take a table on the outdoor deck overlooking Wamplers Lake at Jerry’s Pub at the end of Eagan Highway. Nearby Walker Tavern State Historic Complex is a restored stage stop.
Head east and you’ll find the town of Clinton and the clock tower of the 1901 Clinton Inn. Both it and Saline, to the east, are loaded with huge oaks and white clapboard homes and a downtown straight out of a movie set. Saline, named for its salt springs, is the site of one of Henry Ford I’s “cottage industry” water-powered mills. Past Saline, U.S. 12 gets “citified” as it heads into Detroit’s western suburbs.
U.S. HIGHWAY 31
Climbing out of the magnificent dunes of Lake Michigan’s curving shore, Highway 31 pays visits to towns along what’s said to be the world’s longest continuous freshwater beach. North of Niles, where it strikes into Michigan, it cuts across farms and orchards and through St. Joseph and Benton Harbor.
North of the cities, Riverside Park provides a lake overlook from some of the wooded dunes that also hide Consumers Energy’s Palisades nuclear facility.
It’s hard to find a more picturesque town than South Haven. From the Black River behind downtown’s buildings, head out on the next trip of Captain Nichols or Captain Chuck’s perch party boats, or visit the Michigan Maritime Museum.
The vacation town of Douglas is home to the 350-foot-long Keewatin, one of the last Great Lakes overnight steamships until lake cruising’s recent mini-renaissance. The ship can be toured through Labor Day.
Across the Kalamazoo River’s mouth, Saugatuck is one of Michigan’s best-known art colonies.
Holland is only a few miles north. The highway loops into town past Windmill Island and the Wooden Shoe and Delftware Factory, and the two-million-plus blooms at Veldheer Tulip Gardens. Many orchards are located between Holland and Grand Haven, where peaches have been grown since the 1800s. Walk Grand Haven’s picturesque downtown and harborfront boardwalk and shop in a renovated piano plant.
Muskegon earned its reputation as the lumber city that rebuilt Chicago after the fire, and you can tour the restored homes of two former millionaires, the side-by-side Hackley and Hume homes. Muskegon’s Shoreline Spectacular festival is Labor Day weekend, too early for fall color watching in the area, which is best in mid- to late-September.
In the Muskegon River’s mouth, board the USS Silversides, a famous World War II sub. From Whitehall home of the world’s largest weathervane, take Whitehall Road north through tiny Rothbury, home of the Double JJ Resort Ranch, its Thoroughbred golf course, and the Back 40 Resort kids-only hideaway. From here north the highway cruises through rolling farm fields and forest.
In Ludington, you can cut short your trip and take the SS Badger car ferry across to the Wisconsin town of Manitowoc, or stay in Michigan and continue north through Manistee’s riverfront National Historic District and colorful hilly forest toward Traverse City.
Travel along Grand Traverse Bay through Elk Rapids and past woods that in late September to mid-October are afire with the yellows, oranges and reds of maple, birch and oak.
Curling along the shore, U.S. 31 cruises into Petoskey, and neighboring historic Bay View’s cozy bed-and-breakfasts. It heads deep into the aspen and balsam forests to finally emerge as you cross Interstate Highway 75 just south of the Mackinac Bridge, where a simple sign reads “U.S. 31 ends.”
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For more information about Michigan, call the Michigan Travel Bureau at 888-78-GREAT. Web site is www.michigan.org
