Excerpt from Marquette Monthly "Highway Whodunit" by Larry Chabot
Michigan claims some responsibility for dividing lanes on highways.
Although there is evidence as early as the 1600's of using stones to divide lanes, Michigan has claims to two early contenders for the honor of creating the first painted highway lines. Story says that in 1911 Edward Hines (director of roads for Wayne County) that he saw a milk wagon spill milk on the highway and got the idea to paint a dividing line. The 2nd one is someone we know well. Numerous citations point to Kenneth Sawyer's claims that he was the first to paint a center line as well as creating other highway signs as early as 1917. The first obvious improvement was on Highway M-15. Originally a route in the 1850's between the iron mines in Ishpeming to the docks in Marquette, it went from a dirt road to part of the state roads in 1913. With all the traffic that they were experiencing, the twists and turns and even the change in elevation, drivers were taking a bit more out of their lane than was safe. Going around left turns they often moved toward the center and were not able to see drivers coming from the other side. In fact there was a section that got the name of Dead Man's Curve. Sawyer was instrumental in painting an 8" line down the center of the road and even putting large directional arrows at each end to encourage drivers to stay on their own side. There is so much more to the story. For more information, check out the May, 2018 issue of the Marquette Monthly.