Federal Forest Highway 16 (FFH 16) is a

forest highway Forest Highways or Forest Routes are a category of roads within United States National Forests. They are built to connect the national forests to the existing state highway systems, and to provide improved access to recreational and logging area ...

in the western

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

of the US state of

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

that runs through the

Ottawa National Forest The Ottawa National Forest is a national forest that covers in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It includes much of Gogebic and Ontonagon counties, as well as slices of Iron, Houghton, Baraga, and Marquette counties. The ...

Iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

Houghton Houghton may refer to: Places Australia * Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide * Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland * Houghton Island (Queensland) Canada *Houghton Township, ...

and Ontonagon counties. The

Michigan Department of Transportation The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstat ...

(MDOT) has erroneously marked it as H-16 on their official state map. FFH 16 is designated by the

US Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

(USFS) with maintenance shared by the county road commissions (ICRC, HCRC, OCRC, respectively). Although the MDOT maps would suggest that it is a part of the County-Designated Highway System (CDH system), it is not. The three counties in question do not participate in the system, and the roadway falls in the middle of the G zone for numbering purposes.

Route description

FFH 16 starts at an intersection with County Road 436 (CR 436, Smokey Lake Road) near Horseshoe Lake in rural Iron County's Stambaugh Township. The roadway runs north from this location east of Smokey Lake through forest lands that are part of the

. Near Golden Lake and the Golden Lake National Forest Campground, FFH 16 and US Highway 2 (US 2) intersect. FFH 16 continues north and curves to the northwest around the end of Golden Lake. The routing of the road provides access to several more lakes in rural Iron County such as Paint, Silk and Hehe lakes, as well as an older routing of US 2, before crossing into southern Houghton County. In Houghton County, FFH 16 and M-28 meet in the Duncan Township community of Kenton. The former roadway turns east and runs concurrently along the latter one for approximately a quarter mile (0.4 km) before turning northward again, leaving town near the cemetery. The forest highway tracks due north until Bob Lake. There the roadway meanders through the area near another National Forest campground and crosses into eastern Ontonagon County. FFH 16 crosses back into Houghton County one last time. Immediately after crossing the county line, the forest highway terminates at an intersection with M-38 west of the community of Nisula.

History

A new county-designated highway appeared on maps for the first time in 1983, H-16; it was marked as running between US 2 and M-28 only. This designation was removed in the 1985 edition of the map. The H-16 label reappeared in 1992; this time it was shown continuing south toward the Wisconsin state line and north to M-38, along the routing of FFH-16. The roadway is part of the Forest Highway System that is funded and administered by the

and the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

; the system was created by the

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921, also called the Phipps Act (, ), sponsored by Sen. Lawrence C. Phipps (R) of Colorado, defined the Federal Aid Road program to develop an immense national highway system. The plan was crafted by the head of th ...

. The highway has never been included in the CDH system as Iron, Houghton and Ontonagon counties do not participate in the system, and the Upper Peninsula east of US 41 is the G zone, not the H zone.

Major intersections

Footnotes

References

External links