M-87 is the designation of a former state trunkline highway in the

Lower Peninsula The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula, which is separated by the S ...

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 ...

, which prior to 1960 ran east–west between the towns of Fenton and

Holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergree ...

. The highway served as a connector between US Highway 23 (US 23) and the former routing of US 10, which ran along what is now the Interstate 75 (I-75) corridor. The highway connected the downtown areas of each community as well as running through then-rural areas of

Genesee Genesee, derived from the Seneca word for "pleasant valley", may refer to: Geographic features Canada * Genesee, Alberta, an unincorporated community United States * Genesee, California *Genesee, Colorado *Genesee County, Michigan *Genesee C ...

and

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

counties. The trunkline was decommissioned in late 1960, removing it from the system.

Route description

Immediately before decommissioning, M-87 began at a junction with Business US 23 (Bus. US 23, Leroy Street) east of the

Shiawassee River The Shiawassee River ( ) in the U.S. state of Michigan drains an area of within Oakland, Genesee, Livingston, Shiawassee, Midland and Saginaw counties. It flows in a generally northerly direction for approximately from its source to its conf ...

in the town of Fenton. From there the road traveled to the east along Main Street, where it crossed a branch rail line of the present-day

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

and headed east out of town in Genesee County. After about , the highway crossed into Oakland County and followed Grange Hall Road south of

Seven Lakes State Park Seven Lakes State Park is a public recreation area covering one mile northwest of Holly in Holly Township, Oakland County, Michigan. The state park's of water are found in six named lakes that include 170-acre Big Seven Lake, Little Seven La ...

. The road then turned south in the town of

along Saginaw Street. Near Bevins Lake, the street curved to the east around the end of the lake. The highway turned east on Maple Street and ran south of Simonson Lake as it continued eastward out of Holly. The road crossed a branch line of the present day

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

in Springfield Township. The trunkline continued to the east and southeast through rural areas before terminating at US 10 (

Dixie Highway Dixie Highway was a United States auto trail first planned in 1914 to connect the Midwest with the South. It was part of a system and was expanded from an earlier Miami to Montreal highway. The final system is better understood as a network o ...

History

M-87 was assumed into the state trunkline system by July 1, 1919, when the system was first signed. At the time, the highway connected M-65 in Fenton with M-10 east of Holly. Later when the

United States Numbered Highway System The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these hi ...

was created on November 11, 1926, those two highways were renumbered US 23 and US 10 respectively. The highway was fully paved in 1937. In 1958, Fenton was bypassed by the Fenton–Clio Expressway to the west of downtown and the former route through downtown was redesignated Bus. US 23. M-87 was removed from the state trunkline system and turned back to local control in late 1960.

Major intersections

References

External links

Former M-87
at Michigan Highways {{DEFAULTSORT:M087 087 Transportation in Genesee County, Michigan Transportation in Oakland County, Michigan

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links