In the early 1800s, travel was by water or by land trails developed by native peoples, many of them portage routes from one river to another that often included swampy sections. Pioneers who settled in this area found these trails difficult to navigate with wagons and sought to widen and improve them. Simple log roads built over swampy areas were called corduroy roads, and they were rough, unstable, and dangerous. The wood used for roads was not kiln-dried, so boards warped over time and their ends curled upward into deadly "road snakes" that could go through a coach floor, flip the coach, and injure or kill passengers and horses if a driver did not see them in time. The Lansing-Howell Plank Road had seven gates where tolls were paid to use the improved road. Stop #2 was operated by the Proctor family on the south side of Grand River at Park Lake, across from the Proctor farm; the building was moved to N. Hagadorn Rd. in the 1920s when the Highway Department widened Grand River Ave., and it was later rescued by the Friends of Historic and moved to its current home in the Meridian Historical Village. In 1848, the Michigan Legislature introduced a bill to permit the construction of wooden plank roads, the Lansing-Howell Plank Road was chartered in 1850, one road from Lansing to Okemos was completed in June 1851 and extended to Howell by 1853, and this road is now known as Grand River Avenue. Plank roads were used until gravel became popular in the late 1800s.