page_title: M-185 (Michigan highway)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: M-185 (Michigan highway) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A view of M-185 from Arch Rock on Mackinac Island, Michigan (United States).
context_page_description: M-185 is a state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan that circles Mackinac Island, a popular tourist destination on the Lake Huron side of the Straits of Mackinac, along the island's shoreline. A narrow paved road of 8.004 miles, it offers scenic views of the straits that divide the Upper and the Lower peninsulas of Michigan and Lakes Huron and Michigan. It has no connection to any other Michigan state trunkline highways—as it is on an island—and is accessible only by passenger ferry. The City of Mackinac Island, which shares jurisdiction over the island with the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, calls the highway Main Street within the built-up area on the island's southeast quadrant, and Lake Shore Road elsewhere. M-185 passes by several important sites within Mackinac Island State Park, including Fort Mackinac, Arch Rock, British Landing, and Devil's Kitchen. Lake Shore Road carries the highway next to the Lake Huron shoreline, running between the water's edge and woodlands outside the downtown area.
  According to the Michigan Department of Transportation, M-185 is "the only state highway in the nation where motor vehicles are banned".
context_section_description: The first city ordinances banning all motorized vehicles from the island were passed on July 6, 1898, with similar state park rules coming in 1901. The residents complained after a doctor's car scared their horses and caused carriage accidents, and these complaints prompted the ban. As such, other than a handful of emergency and utility vehicles as well as others by special, limited-time permit, no cars or trucks are allowed on the island and no motorized vehicles appear on M-185. During the winter months, the Mackinac Island Police sometimes patrols the island by snowmobile. Traffic on this highway is by foot, on horse, by horse-drawn vehicle, or by bicycle; M-185 is the only such state highway in the country "that allows no automobiles". As a result, the roadside litter is picked up using a horse-drawn wagon.
  Lake Shore Road around the island was built between 1900 and 1910 by the state, and the M-185 designation was first assigned on July 12, 1933. The roadway was purpose-built for non-motorized use; it is narrower than other state highways. During the 1950s, the state paved the road in asphalt. Since the 1970s, the MISPC has allowed snowmobiles to operate on Mackinac Island during the winter.
  In the mid-1980s, rising water levels in Lake Huron endangered M-185 and bicyclists. The roadway was overwashed by waves from the lake during a storm on May 31, 1985; the waves littered the road with gravel and dirt and raised fears of erosion. MDOT spent around $50,000 (equivalent to $101,000 in 2018) to install 2,500 short tons (2,200 long tons; 2,300 t) of rock and filter cloth designed to prevent erosion. The expectation at the time was that Lake Huron could rise another 4–5 inches (10–13 cm) that summer. Such a lake level increase prompted worries that the waves would wash away sections of the road. The lake had already washed away shoreline near Arch Rock; there was at least 8 feet (2.4 m) of berm between the road and shoreline in the 1970s and by 1985 some sections had been reduced to just 2 inches (5.1 cm). Storms later that year washed away sections of M-185, removing huge chunks of asphalt. MDOT closed those stretches on July 7, 1986, after the Independence Day weekend, to fix the damage. Repairs were budgeted to replace the missing sections of roadway at a cost of $894,366 (equivalent to $1.77 million in 2018); tourists were detoured inland, and uphill, to access the island's various tourist attractions.
  In 1979, while filming Somewhere in Time, a car was brought on the island for Christopher Reeve's character to drive. The next time that a vehicle was permitted on the island was on July 6, 1998, to commemorate the original ordinance that prohibited cars from Mackinac Island. A 1901 Geneva steam-powered car toured the island and was exhibited in Marquette Park before being towed by horse back to British Landing. When Vice President Mike Pence visited the island in September 2019 to attend the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, he was accompanied by an eight-vehicle motorcade, a first for the island; a car was hidden on the island in case of emergency when President Gerald R. Ford visited in 1975.
  MDOT obtained a $242,000 grant (equivalent to $330,000 in 2018) from the Federal Highway Administration in 2002 to purchase conservation easements along M-185. The land adjacent to the highway on the east side of the island is publicly owned while along the west it is mostly private. The grant allowed the MISPC and MDOT to either purchase the development rights to adjacent properties along Lake Shore Road, or the adjacent properties themselves. 
  The only known motor vehicle collision on Mackinac Island occurred on M-185 at the head of the Shepler passenger ferry dock on May 13, 2005, when the island's fire truck slightly damaged the door on the island's ambulance; both vehicles were responding to a report from the ferryboat that an injured passenger required medical attention. Before this incident, it was the only state highway that "never had an automobile accident" according to the Toronto Star.
  In early 2016, the N
caption: A view of M-185 through Arch Rock
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