History
M-66 was first signed along a roadway by July 1, 1919 between M-16 (now M-21) at Lowell and M-46 near Lakeview. The designation was extended in 1925 along M-46 to Six Lakes and then north to M-13 (now US 131) in Lodi. A further extension north from Lodi in 1929 or 1930 along M-131 to Mancelona, a short segment of M-88 and north to US 31 in Charlevoix. The southern end was extended to US 16 south of Lowell by 1931. A section of the northern extension was marked on maps through 1933 as "under construction". That section was cancelled in favor of another routing near Mancelona. A short bypass of Six Lakes added about a mile to the length of the roadway in 1936. The M-131 concurrency was switched to a US 131 concurrency when the latter was extended in 1939. This concurrency was shortened just before World War II when the Michigan State Highway Department (MSHD) rerouted US 131 along a new road between South Boardman and Kalkaska.
The MSHD completed a major rerouting of M-66 around 1944–45. The M-14 designation of the time was decommissioned and replaced with M-66. Starting at Six Lakes, M-66 turned west along M-46 instead of east and then turned south through Stanton and Ionia ending north of Battle Creek. The highway between Lowell and Lakeview was redesignated as M-91. A minor realignment in late 1950 removed two 90° curves near the Osceola–Missaukee county line and replaced them with a pair of sweeping curves.
The MSHD rerouted M-66 between Maple Grove and Nashville in mid-1953. In the changes, M-79 was extended along the new route of M-66 and then over M-214 to Hastings. M-66 was shifted off Assyria Road which was turned back to local control. Another realignment in 1954 shifted M-66 to the modern routing between the M-43 concurrency termini, removing M-43/M-66 from a section of M-50 in the process. The final section gravel section of M-66, approximately 11 miles (18 km) in length, was paved near Nashville in 1957. M-32 was extended along the northernmost section of M-66 in 1963.
M-66 was extended southerly from Assyria through Battle Creek to the Indiana state line replacing sections of M-78 in 1965. M-66 turned south and west along M-60 and new highway to Colon. The segment of former M-78 not used by M-66 was transferred to local control. The final section of M-78's roadway given to M-66 extended it all the way to the state line, resulting in a north–south trans-peninsular highway from Lake Michigan near Charlevoix to Indiana. M-66 is the only such highway to run the length of the Lower Peninsula. The next year, M-66 was rerouted through Battle Creek to use the completed I-194 freeway.
A 90° turn in Missaukee County was removed north of Lake City in 1972. In late 1973 or early 1974, M-66 and M-72 were shifted around the south side of Kalkaska. Later in 1974, the M-32 concurrency was removed when M-32 was scaled back to its former terminus. A project in 1981 furthered the 1972 realignment in Missaukee County. About 4 miles (6.4 km) were shortened from the routing when the new alignment was built between Smithville and Phelps Road.
Read more about this topic: M-66 (Michigan Highway)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The visual is sorely undervalued in modern scholarship. Art history has attained only a fraction of the conceptual sophistication of literary criticism.... Drunk with self-love, criticism has hugely overestimated the centrality of language to western culture. It has failed to see the electrifying sign language of images.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)