page_title: U.S. Route 31 in Michigan
section_title: US Highway System era
hierarchical_section_title: U.S. Route 31 in Michigan / History / US Highway System era
caption_attribution_description: English: A section of the June 1936 state highway map showing US 31 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
context_page_description: US Highway 31 is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Alabama to the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. In Michigan, it is a state trunkline highway that runs from the Indiana–Michigan state line at Bertrand Township north to its terminus at Interstate 75 south of Mackinaw City. Along its 356.5-mile-long route, US 31 follows the Michigan section of the St. Joseph Valley Parkway as well as other freeways and divided highways northward to Ludington. North of there, the trunkline is a rural undivided highway through the Northern Michigan tourist destinations of Traverse City and Petoskey before terminating south of Mackinaw City. Along its route, US 31 has been dedicated in memory of a few different organizations, and sections of it carry the Lake Michigan Circle Tour moniker. Four bridges used by the highway have been recognized for their historic character as well.
  The first highways along the route of the modern US 31 corridor were the West Michigan Pike, an auto trail from 1913, and later a pair of state trunklines in 1919. These state highways were redesignated US 31 on November 11, 1926, when the US Highway System was approved.
context_section_description: The American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) approved the United States Numbered Highway System on November 11, 1926, and the MSHD designated US 31 in Michigan according to AASHO's plan to run northward from the Indiana state line and along the Lake Michigan shoreline to Mackinaw City. A section in the Benton Harbor–St. Joseph area overlapped US 12 and the modern concurrency with US 10 was also in place. By the end of the next year, the highway was extended across the Straits of Mackinac on the state car ferries to connect to US 2 in the Upper Peninsula north of St. Ignace. In 1930, Muskegon was bypassed; the new highway east of downtown was numbered US 31A.
  By the end of 1936, the last section of US 31 in the state was paved near Charlevoix, making the entire highway in Michigan a hard-surfaced road. Early the next year, the route of US 2 was realigned to run into St. Ignace; after the change, US 2 and US 31 ran concurrently. Later that year, a set of curves were straightened out south of Ludington and the routes of US 31 and a US 31A between Saugatuck and Holland were switched, and US 31 was realigned to bypass downtown Ludington.
  In 1938, the southern end of US 31 was given a second designation when US 33 was extended into the state from Indiana to terminate in St. Joseph. Later that year, the US 31A in the Holland area was decommissioned. The next year, the US 31 concurrency was removed from US 2 in the Upper Peninsula and the former highway no longer crossed the Straits of Mackinac, terminating instead in Mackinaw City. By the early 1940, the Muskegon Bypass was given the US 31 designation, and the route downtown was redesignated US 31A.
  During World War II, a bypass of downtown South Haven was built; the former route of US 31 through the heart of the city was designated Bus. US 31 at that time. After the war, the route of US 31 north of Charlevoix was realigned to follow the shoreline; this section opened by the middle of 1949. The route of the highway between Holland and West Olive was changed to run on a more angular course northwesterly in 1950. A few years later, a bypass to the south and east of Holland opened and the former route through down was redesignated as a business loop in 1954.
caption: US 31 running in the Upper Peninsula in 1936
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