Canada’s Cross-Country Highway Once Crossed Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

In the early days of highway travel, it was impossible to drive across Canada. The county's early version of the Trans-Canada Highway included a segment that ran across Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The 1920s era auto route was known as King's International Highway and was meant to connect Halifax in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic Ocean to Vancouver in British Columbia on the west coast. However there were no roads in Ontario on the north shore of Lake Superior so Canadian drivers had two options when it came to crossing the country, put your car on a boat for a trip from Sault Ste Marie to Thunder Bay, or cross into the United States at Sault Ste Marie and drive across Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Most of King's International Highway is today's US 2 to Ironwood. After crossing through Wisconsin and Minnesota, drivers could cross back into Canada and continue the that cross country drive.

A road across Lake Superior's north shore wasn't completed until the 1960s. After that road was complete, so was the highway known as the Trans-Canada Highway.

Find out more about historic King's International Highway in the superlative book "A Drive Down Memory Lane: The Named State and Federal Highways of Michigan."