M-119 (Michigan highway)

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M-119

Maintained by MDOT

Length:

27.57 mi^[1] (44 km)

Formed:

1928 as M-131, 1979 as M-119 ^[1]

South end:

US 31 in Bay View

North end:

C-77 in Cross Village

Counties:

Emmet

Michigan highways
< M-117		M-120 >

M-119 is a 27.57-mile (44.37 km) highway entirely within in Emmet County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The northern terminus is at a junction with county road C-77 in downtown Cross Village, just one block west of the western end of county road C-66. The route follows the shore of Lake Michigan and the Little Traverse Bay, with its southern terminus in Bay View, about four miles east of Petoskey.

1 Route description
2 History
- 2.1 Previous designation
- 2.2 Current designation
3 Major intersections
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Route description

M-119 starts in the Bayview area between Petoskey and Harbor Springs. It rounds the north shore of Little Traverse Bay passing the Harbor Springs Airport near the junction with C-81. From there it runs to Harbor Springs along Main Street. M-119 passes out of Harbor Springs past the golf course on Lake Shore Drive.

The 20-mile (32 km) section north of Harbor Springs is known as the "Tunnel of Trees". This section has no shoulders. Some place lack a centerline when the road isn't a full two lanes wide. Trees but right up to the edge of the road, some branches meeting in the middle above the road. The route is popular with tourists. There are two hairpin turns along the route called "Devil's Elbow" and "Horseshoe Bend". Along this section of road is the unincorporated community of Good Hart. Along this strech of road live Bob Seger, Jim Abbott, and the late Bill Flemming.^{[citation needed]}

M-119, including the "Tunnel of Trees" portion was officially designated a Scenic Heritage Route in December 2002.^[2]

[edit] History

[edit] Previous designation

In 1928, the first incarnation of the M-119 designation ran four miles from Paw Paw south to Lawton in Van Buren County. In 1931, the route was extended south to Marcellus in Cass County and then again in 1933 to Jones and in 1935 to Mottville, thus providing a route between the old US 12 route in Paw Paw and US 112 in Mottville. In 1971, all of M-119 was redesignated as M-40.

[edit] Current designation

The route was designated in 1979, on the former route of M-131 to avoid confusion with US 131, which ends in Petoskey. Ironically, M-131 had originally been designated on the remainder of what had been M-13 when most of M-13 had been designated as US 131 in 1926. At that time, M-131 ran from Fife Lake to Harbor Springs. Over several years, the M-131 route was improved, and in 1938, the US 131 designation supplanted most of M-131's former route from Fife Lake to meet its "parent" route, US 31, in Petoskey. Although the M-131 designation had been extended to Cross Village in 1933, that was cancelled in 1937, and so, by 1938, the route of M-131 was co-signed with US 31 from Petoskey to Bay View, and ended at Harbor Springs. By 1945, the road from Harbor Springs to Cross Village is re-added to M-131's route. In 1979, all of M-131 from Bay View to Cross Village is redesignated as M-119. According to Chris Bessert's Michigan Highways web site, the initial designation may have included the portion of M-131 that had been co-signed with US 31 from US 131 through Bay View, but there is no evidence that M-119 signs ever appeared on the concurrent route.