In 1829 the Territorial Legislative Council of Michigan moved to survey land for a road from the east side of Michigan Territory to the west, beginning at Sheldon’s Inn, later the intersection of Geddes Road and Michigan Avenue, and ending at the mouth of the St. Joseph River at Lake Michigan. The route closely followed the St. Joseph Indian Trail, which indigenous peoples had used for centuries. Although the survey was completed by 1831, settlers on Michigan’s east side had constructed and used the road by 1830. It later became part of a stagecoach line from Detroit to Lake Michigan, with the first coach leaving on May 30, 1834, and taverns and inns serving travelers on long journeys; in 1836 the eighty-mile trip from Detroit to Jackson could take three days. In June 1834 the federal government provided funds for certain roads in Michigan Territory, including $20,000 to upgrade and complete this road. The road aided the development of Wayne, Washtenaw, Jackson, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Van Buren, and Berrien counties, and it contributed to Michigan’s population increase of more than 250 percent between 1830 and 1840. The initial stretch from Canton into Ann Arbor became known as Geddes Road after 1930, named for brothers Robert and John Geddes, early and influential settlers of Washtenaw County. In the mid-twentieth century, the route of I-94 paralleled that of the original Territorial Road.