U.S. Route 2 in Michigan

US Highway 2
US 2 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by MDOT
Length	305.151 mi[1][a] (491.093 km)
Existed	November 11, 1926 (1926-11-11)[2]–present
Tourist routes	Lake Superior Circle Tour Iron County Heritage Trail Lake Michigan Circle Tour UP Hidden Coast Recreational Heritage Trail Top of the Lake Scenic Byway
Western segment
Length	109.177 mi[1] (175.703 km)
West end	US 2 at Ironwood
Major intersections	M-28 at Wakefield US 45 at Watersmeet US 141 at Crystal Falls
East end	US 2 / US 141 near Crystal Falls
Eastern segment
Length	195.974 mi[1] (315.390 km)
West end	US 2 / US 141 near Iron Mountain
Major intersections	US 141 near Iron Mountain US 8 at Norway US 41 at Powers M-35 at Escanaba US 41 at Rapid River M-94 at Manistique
East end	I-75 / BL I-75 at St. Ignace
Location
Country	United States
State	Michigan
Counties	Gogebic, Iron; Dickinson, Menominee, Delta, Schoolcraft, Mackinac
Highway system
United States Numbered Highway System List Special Divided Michigan State Trunkline Highway System Interstate US State Byways
← M-1 → M-3

US Highway 2 (US 2) is a component of the United States Numbered Highway System that connects Everett, Washington, to the Upper Peninsula (UP) of the US state of Michigan, with a separate segment that runs from Rouses Point, New York, to Houlton, Maine. In Michigan, the highway runs through the UP in two segments as a part of the state trunkline highway system, entering the state at Ironwood and ending at St. Ignace; in between, US 2 briefly traverses the state of Wisconsin. As one of the major transportation arteries in the UP, US 2 is a major conduit for traffic through the state and neighboring northern Midwest states. Two sections of the roadway are included as part of the Great Lakes Circle Tours, and other segments are listed as state-designated Pure Michigan Byways. There are several memorial highway designations and historic bridges along US 2 that date to the 1910s and 1920s. The highway runs through rural sections of the UP, passing through two national and two state forests in the process.

The route of what became US 2 was used as part of two Indian trails before European settlers came to the UP, and as part of the Michigan segments of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway and the King's International Highway auto trails in the early 20th century. The state later included these trails as part of M‑12 when the first state highway trunklines were designated in 1919. Most of M‑12 was redesignated as part of US 2 when the US Highway System was created on November 11, 1926. Since the 1930s, several changes have reshaped the highway's routing through the UP. One such alteration eventually created a business loop that connected across the state line with Hurley, Wisconsin, and others pushed an originally inland routing of US 2 closer to the Lake Michigan shoreline. With the creation of the Interstate Highway System, part of US 2 was rerouted to coincide with the new Interstate 75 (I‑75), though in the 1980s, the U.S. Highway was truncated and removed from the I‑75 freeway, resulting in today's basic form.

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