Page:Making Michigan Move.pdf/7



Two men dedicated to a cause, each in his own way Horatio S. "Good Roads" Earle and Frank F. Rogers. As state highway commissioners in the first three decades of this century, they pushed Michigan from mud to mobility. There were others, true, for it takes many people, not just cement, asphalt and machinery, to build roads over swamps, rock, rivers and forests. Yet this diverse pair will always stand tall in the pantheon of early road builders. They built the foundation for the Michigan Depart­ment of Transportation and its forerunner, the Michigan State Highway Department.

Earle was Michigan's first highway commissioner, serving from 1905 to 1909. He was outgoing, flamboyant, caustic, with crossed eyes which he said gave him the power "to look at things other people don't see." He had been drawn into the good-roads movement before 1900, as a bicycle enthusiast. He and other members of the League of American Wheelmen fought for better roads and streets and the rights of bicyclists to use them without interference from horsedrawn vehicles. The league played a major role in persuading the State Legislature to establish a State Highway Commission in 1892 to make recommendations on road improvements and to pass a bill in 1893 to give voters of any county the right to establish a county road system.

Earle's zeal brought him national prominence and focused the atten­tion of the Michigan citizenry on the growing good-roads movement. As chief consul of the Michigan Division of the League of American Wheel­men, he brought the first International Road Congress to Port Huron in 1900, an event that drew hundreds of good-roads advocates from throughout the country. For the main event, Earle hitched together the first good-roads train ever assem