Roads

First there was just a dirt path

But soon dirt paths became seas of impassible mud in wet weather. Roads were then planked with wood planks. Notice the planked road above. But after several years the wood planks rotted and these became wheel breakers. The next improvement was hard packed gravel. Of course these developed pot holes and ruts. Sometimes people convicted of wrong doing were sentenced to work on the roads. Further improvements to roads were paving with cement and asphalt. We are looking forward to the time when ugly maintenance intensive roads will be replaced with beautiful practical foot and bicycle pathways with flowers and crops and occasional streams and lakes which will allow more oxygen to be produced on our planet. The beauty that was once hear can be returned. This will be made possible when hover and flying vehicles are created like the flying car in Star Wars movie.

The rivers were the roads to the early pioneers.  There were Indian trails wide enough for one person to travel on dry days.  As trails were more traveled they got wider and in the spring and fall or after a rain they became seas of mud that sometimes neither man or beast could travel on.  As mentioned above the Christian Moravian Indians made the first road in Michigan.  The Army made a few after that.

In 1827 a road was approved to Saginaw, and another to Ft. Gratiot in Port Huron.  Why did the road have to be approved?  To build a road thru the forest trees had to be cut down, stumps removed, a road bed leveled and the road paved with planks.  Everything had to be done by hand in those days as there was no power equipment.  It cost around $1000 per mile back then to pave a road.  The only one with enough money to do this was the state and federal governments. 

The Michigan territory population had increased to 212,000 from settlers thanks to the Erie Canal.

Construction on Gratiot was completed in 1831

Van Dyke was a fairly straight dirt road by 1840. The name Van Dyke was from the family that had a big farm on Van Dyke further to the South and a member of that family James A Van Dyke had been elected mayor of Detroit. It was named that about 1885.  Even later it was named the Earl memorial highway.

The State Road was full of ruts and either dusty or a sea of mud until it was planked in 1856.  Quite a few years later it was also condemned after the planks rotted then paved with gravel.

1835 Van Dyke (then called the territorial road and known as the center line road) was soon built. A base line had been set up across the state and the various future main roads drawn on maps.  Van Dyke was a fairly straight dirt road by 1840.

The State Road, planked in 1856, ran from Detroit North from Connor Creek to what is now called Sherwood to the Village of Warren.  Part of the road in Detroit, between Van Dyke at Grinnel and winding down to Harper, now known as St Cyril bore the name Center Line Road until sometime around 1945.

The main road from 1820-1880 was the State Road.  Again quoting Gerald Neil  “it ran as follows:  Northeast from Detroit on Connors, across Eight Mile Road almost at the Van Dyke intersection.  Continuing on northwest to Sherwood, (a small section of Connors road still remains here) then north on Sherwood to Eleven Mile.  Here it angled northwesterly to join up with Mound Road and continue on north through into Sterling Township.” 

1920 There were still no good roads in the community.  No I am not being negative.  They were dust bowls when dry and seas of mud when wet and they smelled from the animal manure.  There was little planned drainage so there were lakes where roads were sometimes.  Van Dyke, paved with crushed stone, was both rough and dusty.  Ten Mile Road was a narrow one track dirt road which was practically impassable in the spring.  Nevertheless, people from the city as well as retiring farmers were attracted to the community by the convenience of church and stores with transportation to Detroit.  They made their homes here and Warren grew.