The following is an excerpt from “Good Harbor Michigan; The Story and the People, 18501931” by Norbert Bufka.
ROADS
Three years after the Act passed to establish the Newaygo and Northport State Road, it “was opened between Northport and Traverse City. Previous to this, the only road between these two place was a torturous Indian Trail, consequently the opening of this wagon road was an important event for the inhabitants along the route. The incidents of the journey of Deacon Dame and wife, William Voice and wife and Capt. P. Nelson, who were the first persons to travel over this road, are graphically portrayed by a writer in the Grand Traverse Herald of March 8, 1862. The only hotel on the road “was a Public House about 17 miles from Northport.”
