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Highways 230 through 249M-231 | M-239 | M-247 | Jump to Bottom | |||||||||||||
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PLEASE NOTE: The M-231 route information has moved to its own page: M-231 Route Listing. | |||||||||||||
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Southern Terminus: | Indiana state line (connection w/IN SR-39) southeast of New Buffalo | ||||||||||||
| Northern Terminus: | I-94 at Exit 1 southeast of New Buffalo | |||||||||||||
| Length: |  1.136 miles |
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| Map: | Route Map of M-239 | |||||||||||||
| Notes: | For many years in the 1960s and until 1972, Indiana dragged their feet on the completion of their portion of I-94 past Michigan City, so a temporary terminus of I-94 was located at M-239. Through Detroit-Chicago traffic continued southerly via M-239 into Indiana, then southerly via IN SR-39 to a connection with the Indiana Toll Rd, then westerly toward Chicago. Once the "Cornfield Roadblock" was completed in Indiana, M-239 was retained as a connection with IN SR-39. | |||||||||||||
| M-239, named as such because of its connection with IN SR-39, has always terminated at I-94 and has never extended northwesterly via La Porte Rd into New Buffalo. | ||||||||||||||
| History: | 1963 (Sept 22) - A new 1.1-mile long state trunkline is officially determined along La Porte Rd in southwestern Berrien Co connecting the temporary western end of I-94 in Michigan near New Buffalo with IN SR-39 at the Indiana state line. | |||||||||||||
| Freeway/Expwy: | No portion of M-239 is freeway or expressway. | |||||||||||||
| Continue on: | SR-39 into Indiana - via the Indiana Highway Ends website | |||||||||||||
| Photographs: | ||||||||||||||
| Weblinks: | • M-239 @ Michigan Highway Ends - photos of the termini of M-239 at Dan Garnell's excellent Michigan Highway Ends website. | |||||||||||||
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Southern Terminus: | M-13/Euclid Ave northwest of Bay City | ||||||||||||
| Northern Terminus: | Entrance to Bay City State Park north of Bay City | |||||||||||||
| Length: | 2.960 miles |
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| Map: | Route Map of M-247 | |||||||||||||
| Notes: | Until 1998–99, M-247 had been the highest designated M-numbered highway in the state. All other higher-numbered routes were Interstates. With the first highway transfers of the Rationalization process, Marquette County's Co Rd 553 was transferred from county to state control. First M-553, then M-294 broke the long-standing "247 barrier." M-247's long reign at the top of all M-numbered highways has, unfortunately, come to an end. | |||||||||||||
| M-247, which serves as a state highway connector to the main entrance of the Bay City State Recreation Area, is also known as Euclid Ave and Beaver Rd. The highway derives its number from having been formerly designated as a part of M-47 until 1961, when M-47 was moved onto a former portion of US-10 between Saginaw and Bay City. | ||||||||||||||
 The park which is the main reason for the existence of M-247—Bay
City State Park—was brefily known as Bay City State Recreation Area. When significant additional acreage within the adjacent Tobico Marsh was added to the existing Bay City State Park in 1994, DNR officals thought the overall mix of recreational activities would change in the park to those more closely resembling those of a State Recreation Area, which tend to larger and located in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. The State Park was renamed Bay City State Recreation area in 1994, but confusion over the renaming and preference by the public for the old name led to the DNR changing the name of the park at the northern terminus of M-247 back to Bay City State Park in 2017. |
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| History: | 1961 (July 24) – A variety
of state trunkline highway route changes take place in the "Tri-Cities" area
of Saginaw/Bay City/Midland this year, including the routing of M-47 out
of the Bay City area onto a more westerly-trending alignment via Freeland
and the cancellation of the portion of former M-47 along
Henry St and State Park Dr from Bay City northerly to the Bay
City State Rark. What had been designated M-47 from M-13 (formerly US-23) northwest of Bay City northerly
via Euclid Rd to the state park is redesignated as M-247. |
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| 1984 (May 21) – Approximately 0.19 mile of never-signed M-247 route is abandoned as a state trunkline route while about 0.15 mile of roadway which was never formally determined as state trunkline highway although has been signed as part of M-247 since 1961 (and as part of M-47 since 1932) is officially established between two existing segments of M-247 at Bay City State Park. When originally designated as a state trunkline route in the 1930s, the route of the highway (then designated M-111 before being redesignated later as an extension of M-47) was to have traveled northerly along Euclid Ave from Bay City to the Detroit & Mackinac Ry line, then turn sharply southeast after crossing the railroad to parallel the Detroit & Mackinac on the north/east side before turning southerly along State Park Dr heading back toward Bay City. The portion of Euclid Ave from Beaver Rd northerly to the D&M tracks was never signed as or made part of the state highway and is finally officially abandoned as a state trunline route. The 0.45-mile long segment from Euclid Ave on the north/east side of the tracks southeasterly to present-day State Park Dr approximatley 0.4 mile east of Euclid Ave was never constructed and had been cancelled (removed as a state trunkline highway) when the rest of State Park Dr south of the Park was turned back to local control in 1961. This left the 0.321-mile long portion of State Park Dr from Euclid Ave easterly to the northern terminus of M-247 in Bay City State Park as not technically on the state highway system (but rather being "marked-and-maintained"). This establishment officially brings that piece of State Park Dr onto the trunkline system. |
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| Freeway/Expwy: | No portion of M-247 is freeway or expressway. | |||||||||||||
| Photographs: | ||||||||||||||
| Weblinks: | • M-247 @ Michigan Highway Ends - photos of the termini of M-247 at Dan Garnell's excellent Michigan Highway Ends website. | |||||||||||||