Roadside firsts in Michigan

Michigan lays claim to national firsts like the first mile of concrete road, the first painted centerline, the first electric traffic light, and the first roadside table.

Dawdling along Grand River Avenue while heading home from western Michigan, we spotted this marker for "The Roadside Table".

The marker told a great story about how Ionia County Engineer Allan Williams placed a picnic table along a highway right-of-way in 1929, sparking a movement to place roadside tables throughout the country.

Some sources identify this site near Saranac, Michigan, as the first roadside park in the nation. However, the nation's first roadside park (and table) could arguably be one placed near Iron River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula a decade earlier than the Ionia table made its debut.

Herbert Larson grew up in Iron County, Michigan, trained as a highway engineer downstate at the University of Michigan, and returned home in 1914 to work for the Iron County Road Commission. He became the commission's engineer-manager, serving in that capacity for 39 years until his 1956 retirement.

In 1918, Larson drove to northern Wisconsin with friends one Sunday afternoon, intending to enjoy a roadside picnic. Private resorts lined the highway, so the group couldn't picnic along the road there. Larson knew enjoying such a picnic would be no problem back in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and wanted to do something to help keep it that way.

Larson heard about a plot of wooded land along U.S. Highway 2 in Iron County, four miles east of Iron River that was for sale. He convinced the chairmen of his county commission that the land would make a great roadside park and got permission to purchase the plot.

The county designated the land as a roadside park, and Larson installed a picnic table at the site.

Many sources identify this as the first, or at least likely the first, site specifically designed as a roadside rest stop in the world.

The Iron County Roadside Park resembles a lot of other Michigan roadside parks (like the Mesick roadside park in Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula pictured here) with rustic picnic tables, water pump, and pit toilets.

So, what about Ionia County's roadside table?

A picnic also supposedly sparked Williams' idea to place roadside tables in Ionia County.

In 1928, Williams reportedly saw a family trying to have a roadside picnic. The family used a large stump as a table, but the group had to eat standing up or sitting on rocks and the ground.

Williams had his road crew build picnic tables, using 2x4 planks salvaged from old guardrails sitting unused in the county's garage. They constructed tables and painted them green over the winter, installing the first one the next spring along old Route 16, three miles south of Saranac.

Motorists wrote to the state's Highway Department, thanking Michigan for placing the tables along the road. Department officials liked Williams' idea and authorized other picnic tables on highway right-of-ways throughout Michigan. Ionia County built tables for the state for many years, until the demand became heavy enough that the state took on the task of providing tables.

What about the claim that the Ionia Roadside Table was the first roadside table in the country?

Well, if you buy Michigan's definitions for Roadside Park and Roadside Table, Ionia could be home to the first Roadside Table.

Safety Rest Areas (or Travel Plazas or Welcome Centers) are generally along limited-access roads like expressways. They are open year round, have modern amenities like plumbing, and have parking for larger vehicles like semi trucks.

Roadside Parks are usually in rural areas, often open seasonally, and have limited parking, grills, picnic tables, trash cans, possibly with pit toilets and a map kiosk.

Scenic Turnouts, which can also be Roadside Parks, feature a pretty view.

Roadside Tables are...tables. A Roadside Table site may have room for a car or two to park off-road, a table or two, perhaps a grill, and a trash can.

By the mid-1950s, most states had roadside parks, and safety rest areas began appearing along the interstates.

So, there you have it. Michigan lays claim to the first Roadside Park and the first Roadside Table. Travelers appreciate roadside rests stops, and Michigan prides itself for its roadside hospitality in the form of parks, tables, turnouts, and travel plazas.

Check out my story, Potholes, patchwork and highway safety, about a tribute to highway workers at the rest area and welcome center near Clare, Michigan.

I appreciate a nice roadside park (or table), but my other road trip essential is a good map. Visiting Michigan? Check out the Delorme Michigan Atlas & Gazetteer and Hunt's Map Guide to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved

Comments

[Lauren Weber]

This is very interesting and chock full of great info. Love it! And I love a good picnic roadside when I'm traveling north in Michigan :)

[Dominique King]

Thanks for stopping by, Lauren. Picnics on the way north sound perfect to me!
I got a real kick out of the differentiation between a Roadside Park and a Roadside Table. But, no matter how you look at it, Michigan was pretty much the forerunner when it came to providing a place for travelers to take a break along the road.