The Historic Michigan Road Byway
The Historic Michigan Road Byway is a State Scenic Byway in Indiana. Within Indiana it covers roughly 35 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along The Historic Michigan Road Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Indiana's Historic Michigan Road Byway follows the state's first major highway, built in the 1830s from Madison on the Ohio River to Michigan City on Lake Michigan. Commissioned by the legislature in 1826 and routed through Indianapolis, the road crosses fourteen counties, from LaPorte and St. Joseph in the north down through Marion and Shelby to Jefferson County in the south, touching nearly every landscape found in Indiana along the way. It carried the earliest wave of pioneer settlers north and south, but its history is more complicated than simple commerce: the same road served as a path to freedom for runaway slaves and, in the same decades, as the route along which Native Americans were forcibly removed from their lands. What began as a dirt path through the woods is now a patchwork of county, state, and US highways, officially designated the Historic Michigan Road Byway by the Indiana Department of Transportation in 2011.
- Madison to Michigan City
- 1826 legislature
- 14 counties
- Historic Michigan Road
- Underground Railroad path
- Native American removal history
- 2011 designation
Plan a drive on The Historic Michigan Road Byway →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along The Historic Michigan Road Byway
No campgrounds are listed close to The Historic Michigan Road Byway yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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