Template:Main Page/Selected articles/72

US Highway 2 runs through the Upper Peninsula in two segments, entering the state at Ironwood and ending at St. Ignace; in between, US 2 briefly traverses the state of Wisconsin. As one of the major transportation arteries in the UP, US 2 is a major conduit for traffic through the state. Two sections of the roadway are included as part of the Great Lakes Circle Tours, and other segments are listed as state-designated Pure Michigan Byways. The highway runs through rural sections of the UP, passing through two national and two state forests in the process. The route of what became US 2 was used as part of two Indian trails before European settlers came to the area. Two auto trails, the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway and the King's International Highway, followed the roadway in the early 20th century before it became a state highway, M‑12 in 1919. Most of M‑12 was redesignated as part of US 2 when the US Highway System was created in 1926. Since the 1930s, several changes have reshaped the highway's routing through the UP, creating a bi-state business loop at Ironwood–Hurley, and others pushed an originally inland routing of US 2 closer to the Lake Michigan shoreline. The eastern end became part of Interstate 75 in the 1960s. (Full article...)