The northern section of the highway turns inland through sylvan areas of the UP, connecting rural portions of Delta and Marquette counties.

M-35 is an original state trunkline that was first signposted in 1919, that was intended to run from Menominee in the south to near Big Bay in the north, before it was to turn toward L'Anse to end at Ontonagon.

Automobile pioneer Henry Ford helped halt this construction to gain favor with and membership into the exclusive Huron Mountain Club.

This park sits on 50 acres (20 ha) of land, and it was donated to the City of Menominee by German-American brewer John O. Henes in 1907.

[7] From Escanaba, M-35 runs concurrently with US 2 and US 41 to Gladstone, where M-35 logs its highest average annual daily traffic (AADT) counts.

According to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), the segment through Palmer logged the highway's lowest AADT, only 487 vehicles per day, in 2012.

[18] In 1919, the State Department of Highways, forerunner to today's MDOT, designated a scenic shoreline trunkline to run north from Negaunee to Skanee and L'Anse by way of Big Bay.

[18] 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".

[14] 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] One section running northwesterly from the modern CR 510 toward the Salmon Trout River, complete with guard rails and cement culverts[19] has been called "Blind 35" since.

[20] One of the first tasks for the State Highway Department was bridging the Dead River in Negaunee Township, three miles (4.8 km) north of US 41.

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

[28] 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.

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

Highway construction would also open the possibility of a resort hotel; William C. Weber, a real estate developer from Detroit, owned property along Mountain Lake, in northern Marquette County.

The proposed highway was to cross two 40-acre (16 ha) parcels of Huron Mountain Club property, but that was not enough to halt construction.

[28] 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 $1,120,000 to $1.4 million in 2023[26]).

[31] In 1964, several abandoned underground mine shafts collapsed underneath the roadway, forcing a rerouting of M-35 out of the City of Negaunee.

This change shortened the highway designation and moved the northern terminus to the present location in Negaunee Township.

[36] MDOT constructed a new 20-space commuter parking lot at the southern terminus of M-553 at M-35 in August 2008 as part of an effort to offer expanded ride-sharing opportunities in Marquette County.

[38] On August 26, 2007, MDOT designated the southern section of M-35 along Lake Michigan as the UP Hidden Coast Recreational Heritage Trail running for 64 miles (103 km) between Menominee and Gladstone.

[41] In a press release, MDOT's James Lake states: The Heritage Route passes through both Delta and Menominee counties on the western shoreline of Lake Michigan in the central Upper Peninsula, and features parks, waterways, forests, trails, attractions, boat launches, harbors, and campgrounds.

Suggested stops range from cultural centers and modern entertainment, to historical sites and natural attractions.