M-183 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the

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 t ...

of the US state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. It serves

Fayette State Park Fayette Historic State Park is the state park of the historic town of Fayette in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located on the Big Bay de Noc of Lake Michigan, between Snail Shell Harbor and Sand Bay, on the southern side of the Upper Peninsu ...

as an access route from

US Highway 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada. Unlike some routes, whic ...

(US 2). The highway runs through rural farmlands of the

Garden Peninsula The Garden Peninsula is a peninsula of in length that extends southwestward into Lake Michigan from the mainland of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The peninsula is bordered by Lake Michigan on the east, and by Big Bay de Noc on the west. The base ...

and next to

Big Bay de Noc Big Bay de Noc is a bay in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The bay, which opens into Lake Michigan's Green Bay, is enclosed by Delta County. The Garden Peninsula is on the east side of the bay and the Stonington Peninsula is ...

, a bay of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. The community at Fayette dates back to the 1860s. It has been a state park since the late 1950s, and the connecting road has been a state highway since the 1980s.

Route description

M-183 lies on the Garden Peninsula in Delta County. Running along the east shore of

, the highway starts at the gate to Fayette State Park. South of entrance to the park, the roadway continues under local jurisdiction as Delta County Road 483 (CR 483). From there north, it is a rural two-lane road that runs northeasterly through woodland. The trunkline turns north along LI Road through farmland, and then east along 16th Road near Puffy Bay. South of

Garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

, the highway turns north through the village on State Street. M-183 continues north of town running through the farms of the Garden Peninsula along Big Bay de Noc through the

Lake Superior State Forest Lake Superior State Forest is a state forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is operated by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The North Country Trail utilizes this state forest for 43 miles (69 km) of its route. The Lake ...

to the northern terminus at US 2 in Garden Corners. 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 Interstate ...

(MDOT) maintains the highway like all other state trunkline highways under its jurisdiction. As a part of these responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic along its highways. These surveys are expressed using a metric called

average annual daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

(AADT), which is a calculation of the traffic counts for a segment of roadway on any average day of the year. In 2009, MDOT determined that 692 vehicles a day used the segment near the state park. Through the middle section in Garden, the peak volume was 892 vehicles daily which dropped to 878 at the US junction. The commercial AADT was 54 trucks for the entire highway. M-183 has not been listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

History

Fayette State Park encompasses an historical iron smelting town site from the 1800s. Now a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

, the Jackson Iron Company operations lasted here from 1867 to 1891. The town was used as a location to produce charcoal iron, a purified form of the iron ore mined in the UP. After the furnaces shut down, the town operated as a resort community until the park was created. The Michigan Conservation Department created the park in 1959 after it traded land to obtain the from the Escanaba Paper Company and the from

Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., formerly Cliffs Natural Resources, is a Cleveland, Ohio-based company that specializes in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. It is the largest f ...

. The Delta County Commission had been requesting state assistance for improving the road since 1975. In February 1985, MDOT took control of the road from the county road commission and designated it M-183. The number was chosen to reflect the CR 483 designation it once bore. After the transfer, the state resurfaced the road as part of a program of improvements to benefit park visitors.

Major intersections

References

External links

M-183
at Michigan Highways
Fayette State Park
at Michigan DNR {{DEFAULTSORT:M183

183 Year 183 ( CLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 936 ''Ab urbe ...

Transportation in Delta County, Michigan

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links