In 1825, the United States government appropriated $3,000 for a federal highway, the second in the nation, which was laid out along an ancient Indian trail. Maintained almost continually by federal, state, and local governments, the highway has been used constantly through the present. Today, the US-12 Heritage Trail traverses the State of Michigan retaining an invaluable legacy of structures, artifacts, and landscapes. These structures represent an environment that reflects the needs of both southern Michigan's travelers and settlers.
The US-12 corridor and the areas adjacent have been used since prehistoric times. Near Saline and parallel to the highway, paleontologists from the University of Michigan have excavated portions of the longest mastodon trailway ever found, suggesting that game animals were using the corridor over 10,000 years ago. The indigenous people of Michigan who hunted the animals followed, establishing their migratory routes. Although the history of these peoples is not thoroughly documented, evidence of their use of the corridor remains. Burial and encampment sites have been identified along the highway. In Sturgis, a marker identifies a bent tree reported to have been a trail marker used by the native people. When the Europeans first entered Michigan in the seventeenth century, the route was already a well-established pathway through the wilderness. It roughly followed from Lake Erie to Lake Michigan, a geographical line where the abundant forests of the north gave way to the more open grasslands of the south. During the early history of European dominance the trail was used by both native people and the French in the lucrative fur trading profession. After the British gained control of the region, the indigenous people continued to use the trail as they seasonally traveled to receive their yearly stipend from the British at Fort Malden.
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