of Bus. US 24 (Cesar Chavez Avenue). US 24 turns northwesterly along Dixie Highway, crossing into Waterford Township. The highway meanders again through lake country flanked by residential subdivisions of the township. South of Clarkston, US 24 intersects the southern end of M-15. US 24 bypasses the city to the west and terminates at an interchange with I-75. History In 1701, the first transportation routes through what became the state of Michigan were the lakes, rivers and Indian trails. One of these Indian trails, the Saginaw Trail followed a path from the Detroit area north to Saginaw; this trail ran along what is now Dixie Highway from Pontiac northwards. Telegraph lines were first installed from the Detroit area south to the Monroe area in the mid-19th century with additional lines north to Pontiac completed around 1868. As these communication lines were installed, roadways were added as needed to provide access for maintenance. The parallel road from Dearborn south was named for these lines, becoming Telegraph Road. When the state initially signposted its state highways in 1919, Telegraph Road from the Ohio state line north to Dearborn was assigned the original M-10 designation. The same year, the Dixie Highway, an auto trail that ran south from Detroit to Miami, Florida, was extended through Pontiac northward to the Straits of Mackinac. The numerical highway designation was changed to US 24 when the United States Numbered Highway System was inaugurated on November 11, 1926. Highway traffic coming north from Toledo was forced to pass through Detroit to get to points north at the time. To ease the congestion downtown, a westerly bypass was constructed in the 1920s. Between Flat Rock and Dearborn, the upgraded highway was opened in 1922, with an extension to Stoney Creek the following year. The new road was built north from Michigan Avenue to Grand River Avenue in 1924. The extension to the state line was finished in 1925, and the remainder to Dixie Highway north of Pontiac was done in 1930. At the time, US 24 was extended north to the corner of Telegraph and Square Lake roads, with M-58 routed along the western Pontiac bypass. The highway was widened into a multi-lane highway starting in 1936. By 1945, a divided highway designated Alternate US 24 (Alt. US 24) was opened from the state line north to Erie. This divided highway, now named the Detroit–Toledo Expressway, was extended