routes The sections of the route of US 31 in Michigan has been dedicated several times to various organizations. The route of US 33 in the state, which at the time was concurrent with US 31, was dedicated as the Blue & Gray Trail in 1938 to honor veterans of the American Civil War. The Blue Star Memorial Highway designation was applied to the highway to honor those serving in the military. The designation was dedicated on October 10, 1948, by the State Highway Commissioner Charles Ziegler. In 1917, the Upper Peninsula Development Bureau created a tourist route that is a predecessor of the modern Great Lakes Circle Tours (GLCT). The Great Lakes Automobile Route was a series of roads on both the Upper and Lower peninsulas of Michigan. It included US 31 between Manistee and the Benton Harbor–St. Joseph area. The concept did not last a year; the American entry into World War I and a lack of focus on a single route consigned the idea into obscurity. The idea of a tourist route around the Great Lakes was revived in 1986 as a pet project of Michigan First Lady Paula Blanchard. MDOT and its counterparts in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario created the GLCT scheme which includes the LMCT that follows US 31 from Lake Michigan Beach northward to Manistee and from Traverse City north to the terminus near Mackinaw City excluding locations where business loops run closer to the lake at South Haven, Muskegon, Whitehall–Montague and Pentwater. A group of area residents initiated an effort to have the former West Michigan Pike designated what is now called a Pure Michigan Byway. The designation would prioritize the area for historic preservation grants. A Preserve America grant funded a survey from June 2007 through September 2010, the results of which were a set of reports through the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office on the historical nature of the West Michigan Pike. In 2011, the group was in the process of securing resolutions from municipalities along the highway in support of the designation. According to officials working on the byway, it can take up to seven years to complete the process. The initial proposals had the byway continuing to Mackinaw City, but as approved in 2016, it runs from New Buffalo on I-94 to Ludington, following US 31 except between business loops at South Haven, Muskegon, Whitehall–Montague and Pentwater. Historic bridges