Michigan’s Route 66 Gets Very Little Love and Attention – Why Not?

M-66 is one of Michigan's longest if somewhat unheralded highways. The state's version of Route 66 may just be as worthy of praise as the historic and revered national highway.

👇🏼BELOW: These Short, Overlooked Michigan Highways Exist Only to Leave the State👇🏼

The discussion came up recently on a Facebook group dedicated to the nation's roads. US 66 has entered American lore as the fabled Mother Road. It stretched from downtown Chicago on Lake Michigan to the Los Angeles area steps from the Santa Monica Pier. The route was officially decommissioned in 1985.

Michigan's M-66 certainly doesn't have the same cache nationally. Nor does it get much, if any, recognition in the state despite being one of the longest highways sighed by the state's Department of Transportation.

Think of the more iconic state highways. M-22 on in the northwest Lower Peninsula gets t-shirts, bumper stickers even stolen signs. There's merch for M-119, the Tunnel of Trees north of Harbor Springs and for M-28 the long east-west route across the Upper Peninsula.

Despite running for 272 miles and the entire length of the Lower Peninsula from Sturgis to Charlevoix, there's little love for Michigan's M-66. Likely that comes down to the fact the roadway is a very utilitarian highway. It passes almost no major tourism spots. And being a 2-lane surface street for nearly its entire run, it's almost no one's preferred choice in travel when compared to nearby expressways like US-131 and US-127.

READ MORE: Look Close - Every Single Sign for this Michigan Highway is Wrong

If you did take the very long drive along M-66 from Sturgis you'd hit Battle Creek, Ionia, Lake City, Kalkaska, Mancelona and East Jordan before ending one mile shy of Lake Michigan at US-31 in Charlevoix.

Only M-28 across the UP runs for more miles as a state highway in Michigan than M-66. And one more piece of trivia for the road: M-66 becomes Indiana State Road 9 at the border. SR 9 runs 189 miles to Columbus south of Indianapolis meaning you could make a 461 mile journey across both Michigan and Indiana and never change highways.