founded in 1902. In less than 10 years, more than a dozen others were going in cities throughout the Lower Peninsula. Some used goodly portions of their dues revenues for road improvements. About that time, citizen promoters undertook what were called "pike tours" to demonstrate that the auto was capable of hazardous travel and deserved better road ways. One of the first tour groups spent a week in 1912 driving from Benton Harbor to Harbor Springs, proving that auto travel along Lake Michigan's western shoreline was entirely feasible.
Auto travel on Michigan's roads in springtime during the "Age of Mud" was anything but smooth and speedy.
The Michigan State Good Roads Association was formed in 1906 by a variety of interests to help lead the way and be a spokesman on all manner of road issues. Auto manufacturers joined the movement, knowing that better roads would spur sales of their products. More and more farm organizations followed suit as members learned the advantages of good roads on land values and movement of their products to markets.
In 1913, the state's chief highway engineer became the chief administrator. Frank Rogers, who had served eight years under Earle and Ely, became highway commissioner by choice of the people, who voted their choice for the first time after the Legislature in 1909 had stripped the governor of power to make the appointment. Rogers, a Republican, won out in a field of five. Earle, the candidate of the fledgling Progressive (Bull Moose) Party headed by Theodore Roosevelt, ran third. Ely had retired to his farm.
When Rogers took over, there were 60,438 motor vehicles registered in Michigan, more than 20 times the number registered when the highway department opened for business eight years earlier. A total of 1,754 miles of roads had been built under the state reward system. The average cost of building a mile of concrete road was $15,000. Macadam was $4,500 and gravel $1,500.
The demand for more than purely local roads crystallized that year when the Legislature passed the State Trunkline Act. It provided for laying
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