It crosses the Dead River near the Hoist and McClure dams and runs for 26.103 miles (42.009 km) before terminating at an intersection with CR 550 south of Big Bay.

In 1939, the state transferred control of M-35 to local authorities, and the Marquette County Road Commission (MCRC) designated it CR 510.

[4][5] In 1919, the Michigan State Highway Department (MSHD) designated a scenic shoreline trunkline to run north from Negaunee to Skanee and L'Anse by way of Big Bay.

[8] Local Upper Peninsula historian Fred Rydholm summarized the routing planned in 1925 as extending "... in a northwesterly direction, across the Dead River, over the Panorama Hills, then west past the Elm Creek swamp, along the south side of Burnt Mountain, across the Cedar Creek, the Cliff Stream and out past Cliff Lake to Skanee and L'Anse".

[7] Construction on the two ends left the center portion through the Huron Mountains unfinished and shown on state maps as a dashed line marked "impassable".

[14] His UP land provided wood for the manufacture of Ford automobiles such as the Model T, which required 250 board feet (0.59 m3) of lumber per car.

The town belonged to Dan Hebard, who also sold Ford a sawmill, tugboats, a 14-room bungalow, and land near the Huron Mountain Club.

The Ford Railroad was constructed between L'Anse and the Cliff River for his logging operations on 300,000 acres (100,000 ha) of timberland purchased in 1922.

He often visited the Upper Peninsula on business, but as early as 1917, the year he ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate, he sought entry into the Huron Mountain Club.

[9] The Huron Mountain Club members opposed the highway because it would open vast reaches of the back country and might harm the wilderness.

William C. Weber, a real estate developer from Detroit, owned property along Mountain Lake, in northern Marquette County.

[14] To commemorate his membership, Ford built a white pine log cabin on club property that cost between $80,000 and $100,000 in 1929 (equivalent to $1,118,000 to $1.4 million in 2023[15]).

[10] The Steel Bridge is still in place over the Dead River and previously carried CR 510 as the successor to M-35 in northern Marquette County.

[12][13] The Marquette County Road Commission had announced plans in 2006 to bypass the structure with a modern replacement, leaving the existing bridge as a footpath or bike path.

The concrete work for the replacement span was started in late 2009, with an original projected completion date of November 1, 2010.