Initial colonial influence on Natives: French exploration and Beaver Wars

In 1608, Samuel de Champlain established Quebec as part of New France. He sent coureur des bois such as Étienne Brûlé into the woods to establish relations with the Indians. Around 1615 or 1616, Champlain traveled to Georgian Bay via the French River and met Ottawa and Huron Indians on the south end near Penetanguishene.^{[8][9][10][11]} The French established the North American fur trade with Indian tribes. In the decades that followed, French explorers and missionaries continued to explore the "Upper Country" of New France that included the Upper Great Lakes. In 1634, Jean Nicolet passed through the straits of Mackinac on the way to Wisconsin.^[12] While France colonized the interior lands along the St. Lawrence River, the Dutch and English began colonizing the East Coast of North America, setting up fur trade and arming the Iroquois along the east and southeast of the Great Lakes. Competition for trade and pelts resulted in the brutal Beaver Wars. The Iroquois pushed west into the Great Lakes territory, displacing the tribes who had settled there before. As a result of an Iroquois attack and dispersal of the Huron from Southern Ontario in 1649, the Huron sought refuge with the Ojibwe at Michilimackinac where eventually a Jesuit mission was established for their care.^[13]

Jesuit Mission at St. Ignace (1671–1696)

After taking refuge at Michilimackinac during the Beaver Wars, many Wyandot (Huron) migrated to the areas of Detroit, Windsor, and northern Ohio in the early 18th century.^[14]

Jesuit Father Marquette set up a mission in St. Ignace in 1671. While the Beaver Wars raged on, Marquette evangelized the Indians. From May 17, 1673, until Marquette's death near Ludington on May 18, 1675, Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored and mapped Lake Michigan and the northern portion of the Mississippi River. In 1679, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Father Louis Hennepin set out on Le Griffon to find the Northwest Passage; it was the first known sailing ship to sail in Northern Michigan. They sailed across Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan through uncharted waters, which previously only men in canoes had explored. After Marquette's death, the mission was taken over by Father Phillip Pierson, and then Father Nouvel.^[15]

Father Henri Nouvel was "superior of the Ottowa mission",^[16] Nouvel served in this position from 1672 to 1680 (with a two-year break in 1678–1679), and again from 1688 to 1695.^[17] Under Nouvel, a new chapel was built in approximately 1674. By 1683 the mission was so successful and prosperous that three priests, Fathers Nicholas Potier, Enjalran, and Pierre Bailloquet, were assigned there.^[15] The establishment of a French garrison at St. Ignace in 1679 disrupted relations between the French and the local population, as the soldiers were less educated and amiable than the missionaries.

1680s: Fortification (Fort de Buade) at St. Ignace

In 1683, Governor Joseph-Antoine de La Barre ordered Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut and Olivier Morel de La Durantaye to establish a strategic presence on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinac, which connected Lake Michigan and Lake Huron of the Great Lakes. They fortified the Jesuit mission at St. Ignace and La Durantaye settled in as overall commander of the French forts in the northwest: Fort Saint Louis des Illinois (Utica, Illinois); Fort Kaministigoya (Thunder Bay, Ontario); and Fort la Tourette (Lake Nipigon, Ontario). He was also responsible for the region around Green Bay in present-day Wisconsin. In the spring of 1684, La Durantaye led a relief expedition from Saint Ignace to Fort Saint Louis des Illinois, which had been besieged by the Seneca (part of the Iroquois Confederacy) as part of the Beaver Wars; they sought to gain more hunting grounds in order to control the lucrative fur trade. That summer and again in 1687, La Durantaye led coureurs de bois and Indians from the Straits against the Seneca homeland in the territory of western upper New York state. During these years, English traders from New York penetrated the Great Lakes and also traded at Michilimackinac. This, and the outbreak of war between England and France in 1689, led to the new commandant Louis de La Porte de Louvigny directing construction of Fort de Buade in 1690.

1690s: Cadillac at Fort de Buade; St. Ignace Fort and Mission later abandoned

In the 1690s, commander Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac used Fort de Buade as a base of operations to explore and map the Great Lakes. Cadillac left St. Ignace in 1697 and the Jesuits vacated their residence and church by 1705.^[18]

The Beaver Wars ended when the Great Peace of Montreal was signed in 1701 in Montreal by the French and 39 Indian chiefs including Kondiaronk (the chief of the Mackinaw-area Huron). When Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac left the area in 1701 to found Detroit, taking many of the St. Ignace residents with him, the importance of the mission declined dramatically.^[15]

Early 1700s: Fort Michilimackinac established as a New France outpost

Map of French and British North American possessions in the early 18th century. After ceding Hudson's Bay to the British in the Treaty of Utrecht, France built forts such as Fort Michilimackinac to protect the New France fur trade from the British Hudson's Bay Company.

Northern Michigan as shown on a 1755 Map of New France showing various islands, land features, rivers, and settlements. (In French, "I. du Castor" means Beaver Island, "L'ours qui dort" means The Bear That Sleeps, and "Ance au tonnerre" means Thunder Bay). The map also shows several rivers that retained some similar names: Rue Aux Buscies, and Rue d'Oulamanittie, Rue du Pierre Marquet.

The St. Ignace mission remained open until 1705, when it was abandoned and burned by Father Étienne de Carheil.^[19] It was reopened in 1712, and operated on the north shore of the Straits until 1741, when it was relocated to the south shore.^[20] With the relocation of the mission, the exact location of Marquette's chapel was lost.^[19]

In 1712, at the beginning of a 25-year war between the French and the Fox tribe, Canadian Governor Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil sent Constant le Marchand de Lignery to reoccupy the former post of Michilimackinac, which had been abandoned in 1696 by royal orders.

Around 1715 (during the First Fox War), the French re-established a Northern Michigan military outpost at a new site on the northern tip of the lower peninsula and called it Fort Michilimackinac. This location became the new locus for fur and other trade, and mission work with the natives.

Lignery returned to the command of Michilimackinac in 1722 after an absence of about three years fighting the Fox in Illinois. He carried out the orders of acting Governor Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil and (starting in 1726) New France governor Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois.

From 1720 to 1722, Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix stopped at Michilimackinac and other points in Northern Michigan while seeking a Pacific Ocean passage. In 1728, fur trader Augustin Langlade obtained a fur trading license at Michilimackinac. He and his half-Ottawa son Charles Michel de Langlade (born at the fort in 1729) would later strongly influence the Northern Michigan fur trade as well as French relations with Great Lakes tribes during the 1712 to 1733 Fox Wars and the 1754–1763 French and Indian War.

By 1745, the Odawa had created settlements down the coast of Lake Michigan into the Grand Traverse Bay area, with an approximate population between 1,550 and 3,000. This population varied with the seasons, as the tradition was to migrate inland to different camps (sometimes as far as to Illinois) depending upon the season.^[21] Some Ojibwe bands also shared the Grand Traverse Bay region with the Odawa.^[21]

In 1751, a Jesuit Mission to the Odawa was established in Manistee.^[22]

1760s: Beginning of the British era

In the 1760s after defeating the French in the French and Indian War (and in the Seven Years' War in Europe), the British took control of the Straits of Mackinac and other French territory east of the Mississippi River. They encountered resistance from the Natives, who rose up in what was called Pontiac's War (1763–1766). On June 2, 1763 Ojibwe and Sauk warriors killed the majority of white residents at Fort Michilimackinac. Alexander Henry the elder, one of the survivors, was taken captive and transported to Beaver Island but was rescued by the Odawa Wawatam. The British built the more substantial Fort Mackinac at the site in 1780.^[23][24]

The success of rebels in the American Revolutionary War led to another change in parties in the region. Great Britain formally ceded Fort Mackinac at Mackinac Island to the newly independent United States in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, but the British Army refused to evacuate the posts on the Great Lakes until 1796. At that time, they transferred the forts at Detroit, Mackinac, and Niagara to the Americans. British and American forces contested the area again throughout the War of 1812. The boundary was not settled until 1828, when Fort Drummond, a British post on nearby Drummond Island, was evacuated.

Decline of Mackinaw and fur trade

By the 1840s, the American Fur Company was in steep decline as silk hats replaced beaver hats in European fashion.^[39][40] The straits of Mackinac declined in influence as government offices moved towards the capital at Detroit. While fishing slightly increased, the loss of the fur industry dealt a blow to Michilimackinac's economic significance.^[41]

Increased ship traffic along Northern Michigan coasts

The Erie Canal opened in 1825, allowing settlers from New England and New York to reach Michigan by water through Albany and Buffalo. This route opening and the incorporation of Chicago in 1837,^[42] increased Great Lakes steamboat traffic from Detroit through the straits of Mackinac to Chicago.^[43][44][45] While the coastal areas were travelled, practically nothing was known about the interior parts of Northern Michigan.^[46] When Michigan became a state in 1837, one of its first acts was to name Douglass Houghton as the lead of the Michigan Geological Survey, an effort to understand the geological and mineralogical, zoological, botanical, and topographical aspects of the lesser known parts of Michigan.^[47] Early settlers came to the coasts along Northern Michigan, including fishermen, missionaries to the Native Americans, and participants in early Great Lakes maritime industries such as fishing, lighthouses, and cutting cordwood for passing ships. In 1835, Lieutenant Benjamin Poole of the 3rd U.S. Artillery.^[48] surveyed a former Indian path between Saginaw and Mackinac that would become known as the Mackinac Trail.

Indian missions

Missions to Native Americans included Rev. Peter Dougherty^[49] and Rev. John Fleming's 1839 Presbyterian mission on the Old Mission Peninsula, William Montague Ferry's Presbyterian-affiliated 1825 Mission House / Mission Church on Mackinac Island, Magdelaine Laframboise and Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli's Catholic Sainte Anne Church on Mackinac Island in 1830, Frederic Baraga Francis Xavier Pierz and Ignatius Mrak's Catholic mission to the people of the Chippewa and Ottawa at L'Arbre Croche and Peshawbestown (on the Leelanau Peninsula), Peter Greensky's Methodist Greensky Hill church founded near the Little Traverse Bay in 1844, and an 1848 congregationalist mission founded by Chief Peter Waukazoo and Reverend George Smith in Northport (on the Leelanau Peninsula). The Strangite Mormon community move to Beaver Island in 1848 ^[50] brought additional conflicts as the Mormon leaders sought to enforce laws and restrict use of alcohol on the Beaver Archipelago.^[51]

Fishing settlements

Key fishing settlements included "Fishtown" in Leland, Michigan, and the Beaver Island Archipelago.

Lighthouses

Early Northern Michigan lighthouses included Thunder Bay Island Light (1831), Old Presque Isle Light (1840), South Manitou Island Lighthouse (1840), DeTour Reef Light (1847), Waugoshance Light (1851), Grand Traverse Light (1852), Tawas Point Light (1853), Beaver Island Harbor Light (1856), Beaver Island Head Light (1858), and Point Betsie Light (1858).

While the United States Lifesaving Service did not establish a system of Great Lakes Lifeboat stations on the Great Lakes until the 1870s,^[52] some volunteer stations, such as the North Manitou Island Lifesaving Station were created as early as 1854.

Tension between White settlement and Native American land claims

In the 1836 Treaty of Washington, Michigan tribes ceded claims to land in Northern Michigan—and opened it to settlement. In the 1840s, Odawa villages lined the Lake Michigan shore, especially from present-day Harbor Springs to Cross Village. The area on the tip of the peninsula was mostly reserved for native tribes by treaty provisions with the U.S. federal government until 1875. Early government had been centered around Mackinac Island and St. Ignace, but between 1840 and 1853, the state broke up this single large Michilimackinac County^{[53][54][55][56]} and established names and boundaries of about 21 counties across Northern Michigan. This naming and surveying allowed specific platted lands to be sold at the Land Office.^[57] Increased white immigration and homesteading in Northern Michigan brought difficulties in dispatching of Native American land claims stemming from the treaty of 1836. Bands of Chippewa and Odawa Indians sought redress through the Treaty of 1855;^[58] by this 1855 treaty agreement, lands and payments would be set aside for individual Native American families related to the 1836 treaty, but after this treaty, the US would cease to owe anything ("land, money or other thing guaranteed to them") to Indians or their tribes.^[59]

Increased settlement and establishment of port cities

Now that the land was surveyed and outstanding native land claims eliminated, Northern Michigan settlement increased even further. The Homestead Act of 1862 brought many Civil War veterans and speculators to Northern Michigan, by making 160 acre tracts of land available for $1.25 an acre.^[60] The cutting of wood for passing ships morphed into a full-fledged lumber industry, contributing to the rise of port cities like Manistee, Traverse City, Charlevoix, and Ludington.

From 1836 to 1848, much of the Manistee River Valley, including Manistee itself, was an Ottawa Reservation.^[61] During the lumbering era of the late 1800s, Manistee became a significant site for lumber mills. Huge numbers of white pine logs were floated down the river to the port at Manistee and eventually on to the lumber markets of Grand Rapids, Milwaukee and Chicago.

1870s: Arrival of rail infrastructure, rampant lumbering and fishing, and economic slowdown

Starting in the 1870s, railroads were built connecting Northern Michigan to larger industrial areas to the south. The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad reached Traverse City in December 1872 (via Walton Junction and Traverse City Rail Road Company) and reached Petoskey (known up to that point as "Bear River") in 1873.^[62] The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad completed its terminal at Ludington in 1874. While the Michigan Central Railroad reached Otsego County in the fall of 1872,^[63] rail investments slowed for several years due to the financial panic of 1873 and the ensuing five year economic slowdown. Cheboygan and ^[64] Mackinaw City did not have rail service until the early 1880s.^[65]

Despite setbacks from the Great Michigan Fire in 1871 in Manistee and other lumbering ports, lumbering in Northern Michigan greatly increased. New mechanical tools such as steam-powered (versus water-powered) sawmills and circular saws expanded the ability to process high volumes of lumber quickly. Narrow-gauge moveable rails made it possible to harvest timber year round, in previously inaccessible places away from rivers.^[66] The Michigan lumber market experienced a crash in July 1877 ^[67][68] that coincided with the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. By 1880 the Great Lakes region would dominate logging, with Michigan producing more lumber than any other state.^[69]

The commercial fishing industry also flourished in the 1880s. By 1881, the rich fishing areas around the Beaver Archipelago led to Beaver Island becoming the largest supplier of fresh-water fish in the United States.^[70] By 1886, there was a drastic reduction in the amount of fishing produced, due to overfishing.^[71] In 1893, the Michigan Fish Commission commissioned the University of Nebraska Zoologist Henry Ward to study the sources of food for Traverse Bay area fish.^[72]

Passenger pigeons were hunted to extinction sometime after the 1870s, with the last large nesting in Petoskey, Michigan, in 1878.

The passenger pigeon was hunted in Northern Michigan as a source of food, but by the 1870s, a combination of increased population and economic scarcity led to over-hunting and eventual extinction. The massive flocks of passenger pigeons stopped darkening the skies of Northern Michigan, especially after the last large scale nestings and subsequent slaughters of millions of birds in 1874 and 1878. By this time, large nestings only took place in the north, around the Great Lakes. The last large nesting was in Petoskey, Michigan, in 1878 (following one in Pennsylvania a few days earlier), where 50,000 birds were killed each day for nearly five months. The surviving adults attempted a second nesting at new sites, but were killed by professional hunters before they had a chance to raise any young. Scattered nestings were reported into the 1880s, but the birds were now weary, and commonly abandoned their nests if persecuted.^[73]

1880s: Emergence of resort and vacation industry

Rail connections to the large midwestern cities through rail centers like Kalamazoo led to settlers immigrating and wealthy resorters establishing summer home associations in Bay View Association near Petoskey, the Belvedere Club in Charlevoix, and other lakeside getaways. Starting in 1875 (until 1895) the 1,044-acre (422 ha) Mackinac National Park became the second National Park in the United States after Yellowstone National Park in the Rocky Mountains.

Sport fishing

After being used for floating logs in previous decades,^[74] the Au Sable River in the 1880s became famous for fishing – first for grayling, and later for brook trout and brown trout.

Lumbering practices destroyed Arctic Grayling breeding grounds in rivers and led to their slow decline, and the sport fishing industry also contributed to the grayling's eventual disappearance from Northern Michigan.

Sport fishing along the Au Sable River became a tourist attraction for wealthy sportsmen from Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Toledo, Indianapolis, and Chicago.^[75] After the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad reached Grayling in the late 1870s, it began to advertise hunting and fishing trips in Crawford County, home of the arctic grayling.^[75] In the same way, the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway published a "Guide to the Health, Pleasure, Game and Fishing Resorts of Northern Michigan reached by the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad" in 1882.^[76] In 1880, Ansel Judd Northrup, a lawyer from New York, published a detailed account of his train trip to fish Northern Michigan, and he assessed the Au Sable, Manistee River, Cheboygan River, Pigeon River, and Jordan River for trout and grayling fishing.^[77] The state of Michigan, having created a Board of Fish Commissioners in 1873, stocked rivers with whitefish, black bass, and non-native species such as California salmon, California trout, German carp, and brook trout.^[78] The Board of Fish Commissioners created its first fish hatchery at Crystal Springs Creek in Pokagon and shipped rail cars full of small fish to streams across Michigan.^[79][80] As the grayling vanished from the Au Sable, Manistee and other rivers, the state propped up the Northern Michigan fishing industry with non-native brook trout, brown trout, and rainbow trout (steelhead).^[81] Ultimately, the Arctic grayling that had inhabited much of Northern Michigan^[82] was eventually wiped out. The logging practice of using river beds to move logs in the springtime destroyed the breeding grounds for these fish.^[83] Before they could recover, non-native sport fish such as brook trout^[84] took over the grayling's habitat and made them disappear from northern Michigan.

Industrial growth and diversification

As the lumber industry declined, rail lines such as the BCG & A Railroad (1915) helped to access remote inland tracts of timber.

The effect of rail connections was ultimately transformative; timber and other goods could be produced in the north and shipped to urban markets to the south. Diverse industries developed, such as iron works, tanneries, mills, cement plants, and agricultural enterprises. By 1885, the intense harvesting and export of pine trees led to visible decline in the lumber industry's ability to produce white pine.^[85] Logging in Michigan peaked in 1889.^[86] Where available, hardwoods and hemlock were harvested, temporarily extending the life of lumbering in the area, especially around East Jordan, the Traverse Bay, and near Crawford County.^[87] William Howard White's lumber railroad (Boyne City, Gaylord & Alpena Railroad Company), David Ward's Detroit and Charlevoix Railroad, and the East Jordan and Southern Railroad enabled access to remote timber areas. As lumbering declined, rail lines began to promote Northern Michigan as a "fresh air" resort destination,^[88] and the logging companies promoted their cut-over, stump-filled tracts for their agricultural potential.^[89]

Early resorts

The resort era flourished in lakeside areas of Northern Michigan even as the fishing and lumbering industries experienced slow decline. Historian Bruce Catton's memoir Waiting for the Morning Train (1972) documents his personal experiences of early 20th-century life in a small Northern Michigan town as Michigan's logging era was ending.^[90] Ernest Hemingway also documented turn-of-the-century life in Northern Michigan through his "Nick Adams" stories; Hemingway's own parents were resorters, wintering in Oak Park, Illinois, but summering in the Windemere cottage on Walloon Lake starting in 1899.^[91]

Traverse City State Park

North Higgins Lake State Park

Negwegon State Park

State parks

As lumbering died down, many parts of Northern Michigan returned to their forested state through conservation efforts. The Huron National Forest was set aside in 1909. and the Manistee National Forest was set aside in 1938. State parks were established as well, to include:

• Interlochen State Park (1917)
• Mitchell State Park (1919)
• Burt Lake State Park (1920)
• Traverse City State Park (1920)
• Orchard Beach State Park (1921)
• Harrisville State Park (1921)
• Hoeft State Park (1922)
• Aloha State Park (1923)
• Straits State Park (1924)
• South Higgins Lake State Park (1927)
• Hartwick Pines State Park (1927)
• Wilderness State Park (1928)^[92]
• Cheboygan State Park (1962) ^[93]
• Negwegon State Park (1962)
• Leelanau State Park (1964)
• North Higgins Lake State Park (1965)
• Clear Lake State Park (1966)
• Tawas Point State Park (1966)
• Petoskey State Park (1970)
• Fisherman's Island State Park (1975)
• Thompson's Harbor State Park (1988)
• Rockport State Park (2012)

Ski resorts

Hanson Hills in Grayling was the first downhill ski area in Michigan. It opened in 1929 and was served by rail service.^[94]Caberfae Peaks Ski & Golf Resort near Cadillac opened in 1938 and was served by rail service. Boyne Mountain Resort opened in 1948. Crystal Mountain in Benzie County opened in 1956. Nub's Nob opened in 1958 near Harbor Springs.

Decline of rail

As passenger railroad usage ended in the 1960s (due in part to increased automobile travel), aggressive promotion of Northern Michigan by local chambers of commerce led to many of the festivals and attractions that bring visitors north even today.

Quarrying and mining

Cement-making and the mining of limestone and gypsum for Portland Cement are major exports of the area. Charlevoix's Medusa Cement Plant was bought by Cemex in the 1990s. Alpena is home to the Lafarge Company's holdings in the world's largest cement plant and is home to Besser Block Co. (Jesse M. Besser invented concrete block in 1904 and founded the Besser Block Co. in Alpena after making the concrete block making machine). USG Corporation, also known as United States Gypsum Corporation, operates several quarries, including one at Alabaster, and one in Rogers City. Rogers City is the locale of the world's largest limestone quarry, which is also used in steel making all along the Great Lakes.

Energy (oil and natural gas)

Antrim Shale reserves in northern Michigan

Northern Michigan has significant natural gas reserves along the Antrim shale formation in northern Michigan. By some estimates it is the 15th largest gas field in the nation.^[188] Drilling activity peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s,^[189] In 2014, Encana, the Canadian company who had been drilling in Northern Michigan, sold their mineral rights to Marathon Oil order to focus on more profitable operations elsewhere. For oil interest, Encana amassed rights for the Collingwood-Utica Shale (Michigan) between 2008 and 2010, mostly in Cheboygan, Kalkaska, Michigan, and Missaukee counties. The Collingwood layer is two miles below the surface and would require horizontal drilling.^{[190][191][192]}

Manufacturing

Alpena has a hardboard manufacturing facility owned by Decorative Panels, International. Nearer to the Lake Michigan shore, Cadillac and Manistee have manufacturing and chemical industries. Morton Salt operates one of the largest salt plants in the world in Manistee. Also, the East Jordan Iron Works corporate offices, as well as the original foundry, are located in East Jordan.

FM

// designates a simulcast.

AM

Transit

• Bay Area Transportation Authority
• Indian Trails

Automobile roads

US-131 (in red), US-23 (in orange), and I-75 (in blue) are three primary highways bringing downstate automobile traffic to Northern Michigan.

The SS Badger connects the Wisconsin and Michigan segments of US 10

The Grandview Parkway in Traverse City serves as a bypass of downtown, and, in total, carries four different highways along its length: US-31, M-22, M-37, & M-72

The primary means of transportation in Northern Michigan is by automobile. Northern Michigan is served by one Interstate, and a number of U.S. Highways and Michigan state trunklines.^[199]

• I-75 runs northwest–southeast through the region between the Flint/Tri-Cities area and Mackinac Bridge at Mackinaw City, which leads on to the Upper Peninsula.
• US 10 enters Michigan after it crosses Lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Ludington. US 10 runs from Ludington through Baldwin and Reed City before it becomes a freeway west of US 127 near the junction with M-115. US 10 bypasses Midland and terminates at I-75 in Bay City.
• US 23 runs northward for about 200 miles (320 km) along (or parallel with) the Lake Huron shoreline as the Sunrise Side Coastal Highway from the Flint/Tri-Cities area.
• US 31 mainly parallels the Lake Michigan shore from the Ludington area north to Mackinaw City; near Traverse City, the highway cuts the base of the Leelanau Peninsula.
• US 127 ends at Grayling, connecting Northern Michigan with points south
• US 131 is a primary north–south highway that is a freeway from Manton southwards; north of the freeway terminus, the highway is mostly two lanes, connecting Kalkaska, Mancelona, and ending at US 31 in Petoskey.
• M-18 runs between Midland County, through Prudenville and Roscommon to M-72 in Crawford County.
• M-22 follows the Lake Michigan shoreline from Traverse City to Manistee and is a scenic drive along the Leelanau Peninsula and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
• M-27 runs along the old route of US 27 between Indian River and Cheboygan.
• M-32 runs between East Jordan and Alpena.
• M-33 runs between Alger (northwest of Standish) and Cheboygan.
• M-37 runs from Battle Creek via Grand Rapids to Traverse City and the Old Mission Peninsula.
• M-42 is a short route between Manton and M-66 north of Lake City.
• M-55 is a 150-mile (240 km) transpeninsular highway at the southern edge of the region from Manistee to Tawas City.
• M-65 runs northward from Au Gres (just north of Standish) to Rogers City,.
• M-66 traverses almost the entire north–south distance of the Lower Peninsula ending at Charlevoix.
• M-68 is an east–west state highway that runs from Alanson to Rogers City; it passes through Indian River, Afton, Tower, and Onaway.
• M-72 crosses the Lower Peninsula from Empire via Traverse City to Harrisville.
• M-75 is a connector between US-131 and Boyne City, and, despite its proximity to the highway, is not related to I-75.
• M-88 traverses Antrim County from Eastport to Mancelona via a handful of small towns.
• M-93 is a short highway connecting Camp Grayling, Hartwick Pines, and the city of Grayling in Crawford County.
• M-109 serves as a scenic loop off M-22 in the Sleeping Bear Dunes.
• M-113 runs across southern Grand Traverse County connecting M-37, US-131, and the village of Kingsley.
• M-115 is a "diagonal highway", taking a generally northwest–southeast direction from Clare to Frankfort.
• M-119 spurs off US-31 near Petoskey through Harbor Springs and along the Lake Michigan Coast as the Tunnel of Trees.
• M-137 is a short highway running from US-31 to Interlochen Center for the Arts. The highway has become famous among students.
• M-204 cuts across Leelanau County from Leland to Suttons Bay.
• M-212 is the shortest signed highway in the state, connecting Aloha State Park to M-33 south of Cheboygan.

Past railroads

The Northern Lower Peninsula was home to many different railroads during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of these lines was the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railroad, later known as the Detroit and Mackinac Railway. The railroad had a main line along the Lake Huron shore and branch lines connecting to logging camps and gravel quarries. The railroad was a part owner of the SS Chief Wawatam, a rail car ferry that crossed the Straits of Mackinac. Running down the center of the Northern Lower Peninsula was the Michigan Central Railroad, which connected Mackinaw City with Bay City, Detroit, Lansing, and beyond. This line later became the New York Central and was sold to the Detroit and Mackinac Railway in 1976.^[200] Several other railroads have existed in Alpena's history.^[201]

On the west side of the peninsula, the Chicago and West Michigan Railway (later the Pere Marquette Railway) and several commercial cruise lines were early in generating traffic to Northern Michigan destinations. The Pere Marquette Railway operated rail car ferries across Lake Michigan out of Ludington. The most known ferry is the SS Badger which is still in use today for automobiles and passengers.

The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad provided rail service between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mackinaw City. It was later bought out by the Pennsylvania Railroad. It served resort towns such as Traverse City, Petoskey, and Cadillac. In 1975 the line was bought by the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Michigan Northern Railway was contracted to operate. By 1984 much of the railroad was abandoned and operations were handed over to the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway.

The Ann Arbor was a railroad stretching from Toledo, Ohio, to Elberta, Michigan, where it operated a rail car ferry until 1982. The ferry serviced the cities of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Menominee, Michigan, and Manistique, Michigan. The Ann Arbor became a part of Conrail and then was later divided up between the Michigan Northern Railway and the Michigan Interstate Railway Company. The remaining portions of the line were absorbed into the state owned lines operated by the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway.^[202]

Present railroads

Currently, Northern Michigan's railroad system is a skeleton of its former self. After the Chief Wawatam stopped running in 1984, rail lines serving the Straits of Mackinac were soon abandoned. In years past, four different railroads served Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, and now none are left.

The remainder of the former Detroit and Mackinac Railway is now the Lake State Railway. It operates a line from Bay City to Pinconning where it then branches northeast to Alpena and northwest to Gaylord.

Portions of the former Pere Marquette Railway, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, and the Ann Arbor Railroad became the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway. The main line of this railway runs from Ann Arbor north to Petoskey, with branch lines to Yuma and Traverse City. The railroad was renamed the Great Lakes Central Railroad. There have been discussions of reviving passenger service along this line.