The Chicago Road was one of the great routes for pioneers coming west. Its survey began at Detroit in 1825 and closely followed the Sauk Trail, which Indians had marked and traveled for centuries before the coming of the white man. Because of its many curves, the road was likened to “a huge serpent, lazily pursuing its onward course, utterly unconcerned as to its destination.” Although originally designed as a military highway linking the forts at Detroit and Chicago, it became more important in opening southern Michigan to settlement and in providing a westward land route that let travelers avoid the long voyage by boat around lower Michigan. By the 1830's, pioneer families by the thousands each year were moving over it in their wagons, and by 1835 the Western Stage Company of Detroit was running two stages daily to Chicago. Much of the road was little more than an unimproved trail, making travel over it unforgettable and uncomfortable. Buildings from that bygone age still stand along US-12, the Chicago Road's descendant.