M-22 is a state trunkline highway in 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 is long and follows the

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 ...

shoreline of the

Leelanau Peninsula The Leelanau Peninsula ( ) is a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan that extends about from the western side of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan into Lake Michigan. Leelanau County encompasses the entire peninsula. It is often referred to as ...

, making up a portion of the

Lake Michigan Circle Tour The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. It consists of routes for circumnavigating the lakes, either individually or collectively. It was designated by the Grea ...

. It also passes through the

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a United States National Lakeshore located along the northwest coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in Leelanau and Benzie counties near Empire, Michigan. The park covers a stretch of Lake Michig ...

. The highway is U-shaped as it rounds the peninsula running through tourist areas in Leland and Suttons Bay in addition to the national lakeshore. M-22 is an original trunkline designation dating back to the 1919 designation of the system. Reroutings have moved the highway closer to the water between Suttons Bay and Traverse City. A section of the highway was used temporarily for another highway, M-109. Two sections of the highway have been designated as separate

Pure Michigan Byway A Pure Michigan Byway is the designation for a segment of the State Trunkline Highway System in the US state of Michigan that is a "scenic, recreational, or historic route that is representative of Michigan's natural and cultural heritage." The ...

s. The

highway marker A highway shield or route marker is a sign denoting the route number of a highway, usually in the form of a symbolic shape with the route number enclosed. As the focus of the sign, the route number is usually the sign's largest element, with oth ...

is used in marketing by a local business as a symbol of the region, a trademark for which has been the subject of legal controversies. A popular roadway in the area with tourists, the highway's marker has also been the subject of

sign theft Street sign theft occurs when street signs are stolen, to be used as decorations, sold as scrap metal or to avoid obeying the law by claiming later the sign was not there. Although the theft often seems arbitrary, signs with unusual or amusing ...

Route description

The southern terminus is at US Highway 31 (US 31) northeast of Manistee and the northern terminus is in

Traverse City Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was ...

. In between the trunkline loops north along

to Northport before turning south along the West Arm of

Grand Traverse Bay Grand Traverse Bay is a deep bay of Lake Michigan formed by the Leelanau Peninsula in the northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is long, wide, and up to deep in spots. It is further divided into two east and west arms by the Ol ...

. The road itself comprises numerous turns and hills, making it a very popular drive for tourists visiting the area from areas such as Chicago and Detroit, especially during autumn. The road runs north to the village of Onekama running east and north of Portage Lake before returning north to

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

. M-22 turns northeasterly to curve around the north shore of Crystal Lake after passing through Elberta and Frankfort. South of the Platte River, the highway crosses into the

. East of Platte Lake, M-22 turns northward again toward Empire, headquarters of the national park. M-22 takes the inland route between Little and Big Glen lakes, losing the Lake Michigan Circle Tour designation to M-109 until the two meet again in

Glen Arbor Glen Arbor Township is a civil township of Leelanau County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 859 at the 2010 census. However, the population of the town expands rapidly during the summer months as a result of it being a summe ...

. The roadway follows the shoreline of Pyramid Point and passes east out of the national park before turning north to Leland. Traverse City Michigan Sign M-22

Continuing northward, M-22 reaches its northernmost extent in Northport before turning south. It passes through the reservation of the Grand Traverse Band of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians in Peshawbestown, home to one of the tribe's two casinos. Further south is the community of Suttons Bay located on the small bay of the same name. From here south, the highway runs just off the shore of the Grand Traverse Bay south to Greilickville. Just south of Greilickville, M-22 enters a section of the city of Traverse City that is located in

Leelanau County, Michigan Leelanau County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census, the population was 22,301. Since 2008, the county seat has been located within Suttons Bay Township ...

formed by an acquisition of a neighborhood of Greilickville. Here is the eastern junction between M-22 and M-72. The two highways run concurrently along Grandview Parkway to Division Street. There they meet US 31/ M-37 and M-22 ends. A portion of this road has been designated a what is now called a Pure Michigan Scenic Byway by the state of Michigan.

Cultural references

Broneah Kiteboarding, a company based in Traverse City, has adopted the M-22 marker as a logo and sells merchandise such as clothing and bumper stickers featuring it. As such, the logo has become a popular symbol for the company as well as a cultural symbol for the western Grand Traverse Bay area. The private corporation has attempted to trademark the road sign, which has been legally opposed by the Michigan Attorney General

Bill Schuette William Duncan Schuette ( ; born October 13, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd attorney general of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. He was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Senate in 1990 and for Governor of Mich ...

; that formal opposition was removed by his successor

Dana Nessel Dana Michelle Nessel (born April 19, 1969) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 54th Attorney General of Michigan since January 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Nessel is the second openly lesbian woman elected at ...

in 2019.

In 2015, the readers of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' voted M-22 the "best scenic autumn drive" in the nation, noting that it offers " of stellar autumn leaf-peeping". Due to the popularity of the roadway, sign theft along parts of M-22 has become an issue for MDOT. The department announced in 2016 that it was removing the "M" from the top of some of the M-22 markers to combat the issue. The state had replaced about 90 signs in the previous three years, and a department spokesman said the popularity of the highway from merchandise sales and scenic travelers factored into those thefts. The new signs cost between $325 and $350 apiece to manufacture, no different from what the standard M-22 signs cost, and MDOT hoped that the modified signs will prove less popular with thieves. The new signs will be installed as replacements in the areas with the most thefts, like Leelanau County, while the rest of the highway will still receive the standard M-22 marker. A year later, sign theft was still an issue. The department started testing pavement markings because the other efforts had failed. The markings cost $175, but they last only three years compared to the ten-year lifespan of a sign.

History

M-22 is an original trunkline, dating to the July 1, 1919 designation of the system. In 1929, the highway was rerouted along the west side of Little Glen Lake, using the modern M-109 around the lake. M-22 would be rerouted back around to the present routing the next year, and M-109 was designated on the west side of the lake in its place. 45th parallel Suttons Bay Township MI

Until 1936, M-22's route was on Cherry Bend and Center roads in Leelanau County to Suttons Bay. At that time, M-22 was relocated along the west arm of

onto Center Road up to Crain Hill Road In 1949, M-22 was relocated the rest of the way to Suttons Bay, and the former M-22 on Cherry Bend and Center roads became County Road 633. and in 1945, the last gravel stretch of M-22 from Leland to Northport was paved. In Traverse City, M-22 originally started at Front and Union streets going west on Front to Elmwood, turning north onto Elmwood, then west on Bay Street to Greilickville. It was relocated onto the newly built Grand View Parkway in 1952, from Greilickville to Division Street (relocated US 31). In 2002, the route of M-22 from the Benzie– Leelanau county line northward to Northport and then south to Traverse City was designated as part of a Michigan Heritage Route along with M-109 and M-204 as the Leelanau Scenic Heritage Route; this moniker was renamed

at the end of 2014. The remainder of the highway was designated as a separate byway in October 2016.

Major intersections

References

External links