The Monroe Pike was key part of the emerging stagecoach/plank road expansion for travelers to head west during the early days of Michigan Territory and statehood. One such traveler recalls: "In the days before railroads , stagecoaches were often the only way people could travel from one town to another. One of the first stagecoach lines to be established was along the River Road to Ohio. Ecorse pioneer Alexander Campau enjoyed the boyhood adventure of riding from Detroit to Monroe and back on the stagecoach which one of his distant cousins drove. He loved the adventure of pulling into Monroe at night, hot, dusty and weary and listening to the traveler’s spinning tall tales as he ate supper. The next day arising at dawn to catch the state home he felt a renewed sense of adventure as he headed home to Ecorse along the River Road."-
The French-Indian Trail, the Monroe Pike, the River Road, and Jefferson Avenue
More info about the rapid growth of stagecoach travel in early Michigan: "By 1830, the US-12 Heritage Trail had become a major highway carrying travelers, settlers, and freight across the peninsula. In that year, two stagecoaches per week ran between Detroit and Niles. The road reported to be "...crowded with traffic afoot, on horseback, by wagons, and stagecoach. By the close of 1833 one coach left Ypsilanti for Niles every afternoon" (Pray, 1927). So many traveled along the sometimes impassable route that there was a tremendous need for lodging places. Many homeowners made extra money renting a room or two for the night. Conventional inns became established along the route. In Branch County alone there were 33 taverns in 1837, and several still remain.
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The best preserved of these inns is the Walker Tavern at the junction of the Chicago Road (currently US-12) and the La Plaisance Bay Pike (currently M-50) which ran from Monroe."-
Heritage Trail
A detailed story about how this Michigan stagecoach route gave rise to several businesses and industry along the travels can be found
Here. An excerpt:
To tell the story of how Walker Tavern came to be, we must again learn a little about the earlier history of the area in which it sits. After the Erie Canal opened in 1825, thousands of settlers flocked to the Michigan Territory. Two roads moved pioneers west from Lake Erie: the Monroe Pike, running from Monroe to Jackson, and the Chicago Road. These two roads intersected at Cambridge Junction, which made it a great location for a tavern.
Text from the historical marker:
With the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, Monroe's LaPlaisance Harbor became the gateway to the West. A stream of settlers from Europe and the East crossed Lake Erie in sailing vessels and later in steamships, all seeking new homes in Michigan or in states to the West. These pioneer families journeyed in covered wagons along the Monroe Pike, settling on the River Raisin, others moving on to the Chicago Pike which intersected this highway at Cambridge Junction, 45 miles West of here.
Stagecoach routes, begun in 1826, followed this pioneer highway and taverns were established along the way to shelter the ever increasing number of travelers.
This route is now called Telegraph Road at this point and the entire stagecoach trail has become
US-24