H-58 (Michigan county highway)

County Designated Highway H-58 is a road that runs east–west in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. H-58 is routed through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Along H-58, there are the towns of Melstrand, Van Meer, and Myren. The length is 69.1 miles (111.2 km).The western terminus is at M-28 in downtown Munising, Alger County, Michigan. The eastern terminus is at H-37 in Muskallonge Lake State Park, Deer Park, Luce County, Michigan.

Route description

H-58 starts in Munising as the east end of Munising Street at an intersection with M-28. From the western terminus of the highway, H-58 passes out of town by the Neenah Paper Mill.^[2] Leaving town, H-58 becomes Munising-Van Meer-Shingleton Road and enters the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The PRNL Visitors Center is located off Sand Point Road at the west end of the park. This visitors center stays open year round. Farther along H-58 is H-11/Miners Castle Road. This road provides access to Miners Castle, a natural rock formation located on the shores of Lake Superior, and the Miners Falls. Farther along, H-58 meets H-15 in Van Meer, home of the Bear Trap Inn and Bar. Munising-Van Meer-Shingleton Road turns south along H-15 and H-58 turns northeast along Melstrand Road to the community of Melstrand.^[3]

Melstrand is located outside of the national park boundaries in the Lake Superior State Forest. H-58 continues through "burned and cut areas, meadows, maturing second growth, and the haunting sounds of silence… if you stop the car and listen."^[3] Farther along, H-58 reenters the park boundaries and approaches more Pictured Rocks facilities like the Hurricane River Campground, home to all the necessary camping facilities. The road through here is gravel and being paved approaching the Log Slide. The Log Slide gives motorists a chance to hike down to the lakeshore to see the Au Sable Point Lighthouse peeking above the trees to the east and the Grand Sable Dunes to the west along the lake. The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and can be accessed from the Hurricane River Campground. West of Grand Marais H-58 is paved again and approaches the Woodland Township Park. Here hikers can walk along the beach to the base of the Grand Sable Dunes that form the east end of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. These dunes reach heights of up to 275 feet (84 m) at a 35° incline. Hikers are advised to use the access points along H-58 to get to the dunes instead of attempting the climb up the face.^[3]

H-58 meets M-77 in the community of Grand Marais. Grand Marais is home to a small harbor that was once the home of a lumber shipping port. Grand Marais was the location of thirty saloons, boarding houses, a dozen hotels, two newspapers, the Alger–Smith sawmill and a train taking passengers to Marquette. A site of interest in Grand Marais is the Earl of Sandwich Shop next to the harbor downtown. Here visitors can enjoy fresh-made ice cream hand-dipped into waffle cones.^[3] Grand Marais is the east end of both the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Alger County.^[4]

H-58 follows a gravel roadway through the forested northwest corner of Luce County.The east end of H-58 is at Muskallonge Lake State Park in the unincorporated community of Deer Park, north of Newberry Here H-58 meets H-37. Deer Park is the location of a trio of resorts and remnants of a community that once included a sawmill, hotel and store. The park hosts 71,000 visitors a year.^[3]

History

H-58 is the main access road for the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Since 2004-05, signage along the route has been greatly improved by the Alger County Road Commission.^[5] Portions of the road are paved while the majority of the road's length in Alger County and all of the road's length in Luce County is gravel or sand.^[4] The route formerly ran south of Muskallonge Lake.

The Alger County Road Commission had a five-stage plan to pave the remaining sections of the road between Melstrand and Grand Marais utilizing National Park Service funding. According to a July 13, 2006 story in the Marquette Mining Journal, "The horizontal alignment of the road will be changed in most places and some of the extremely tight curves will be straightened out. The road will be designed for travel speeds of 40 mph (64 km/h) to maintain the nature of the road and the park setting."^[6] The projected completion date was in 2010.^[5] Funding on the paving project between Buck Hill and the boundary of the national park was being held up pending passage of a technical corrections bill by the US Senate. The original funding authorization specified that sections were being repaved. Instead they are being paved for the first time or realigned.^[7] A bill, HR 1195, was being considered in the Senate to clear up this appropriation error to clear the funding.^[8] The final section was dedicated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 15, 2010, marking the completion of the overall project.^[9]

Major intersections

References

External links

• Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Road Construction page (H-58)