The epilog to the story of Hyw. 35 does have a happy ending. Even though the wealthy got their way like they normally do, the common man got a bonus (just like the French Revolution when the peasants had enough and decapitated the aristrocrats). During the construction of Hwy. 35 northwest of Marquette, a section of the road was completed to 1930 standards. A used bridge bought and brought in from Pennsylvania, crossed the Dead River and went north up to the current County AAA, which is now a super highway to access America’s only nickel concentration: the Eagle Mine. Opened in 2014 and set to close in 2027 when the reserve is exhausted, this mine must ship the mined rock in an inefficient route to Humboldt, Michigan, for element extraction. All tailings are trucked back into the mine’s voids. An environmental victory for the Huron Mountain Club, who didn’t want the sulfide tailings left on the surface. A more direct route was proposed through virgin forest, but Henry Ford is long dead, and so it was denied. Victory #2 goes to the tree huggers. The old Hyw. 35 goes north of AAA and puts you on a 1 lane sand track for a few miles. It ends at the Salmon Trout River, which is the Huron Mountain Club’s line in the sand. However, if you go south at that crossing, you will be on 510, and here’s the good part. The hard packed 2-lane gravel road taken at a particular time of year is 1 of the most scenic roads I have ever traveled on (and I’ve been on a lot of rural roads). Catch it in fall on a sunny day, and you will be rewarded with an orange and red tunnel that is gorgeous. As the colorful leaves lay on the road base, the hardwoods have arced over the road cut from 90 years ago, and they fill in the cylindrical shape like
a kaleidoscope full of ambers and scarlets. Henry Ford! Even though you were a greedy industrialist and environmental rapist-prick, thank you for that gift.
Torked Truth 