Various sections are rural two-lane highway, urbanized four-lane divided expressway and the Copper Country Trail National Scenic Byway.

The trunkline ends at a cul-de-sac east of Fort Wilkins State Park after serving the Central Upper Peninsula and Copper Country regions of Michigan.

Historical landmarks along the trunkline include the Marquette Branch Prison, Peshekee River Bridge and the Quincy Mine.

The highway meets the southern terminus of M-35, with the Menominee-Marinette Airport to its west, and the waters of the Green Bay less than 1,000 feet (305 m) to the east, following 10th Street out of town.

[9] The trunkline enters Escanaba from the west on Ludington Street, turns north on Lincoln Road, and joins M-35.

M-94 follows US 41 for approximately 2 miles (3 km) near Skandia, before it turns westward to provide access to K. I. Sawyer, a former air force base.

It meets the eastern junction with M-28 in Harvey, and the two highways run concurrent for nearly 60 miles (97 km), during which they follow the Lake Superior Circle Tour.

South of downtown, the highway turns west on the Marquette Bypass, a four-lane expressway complete with two overpasses.

[5] US 41 turns north solo from Covington, crossing the Sturgeon River, on the way to the historic sawmill town of Alberta.

Congress asked Secretary of War William Wilkins for funding to build such a road in 1844, since the area depended on a land connection to Green Bay, Wisconsin, for up to six months a year for supplies and mail.

[24] Congress passed a law to build a military wagon road on March 3, 1863, from Fort Wilkins to Houghton and then south to the state line.

The war removed laborers in mining, lumbering and shipping as well as soldiers from the available workforce, and Congress extended the deadline an additional 21 months in June 1868.

A third and final extension on the deadline was needed in April 1872, and the roadway was completed south to the state line in September 1873, shifting the southern segment in the Upper Peninsula west to the modern US 45 corridor in place of the FFH-16 alignment.

[27] The 1927 edition of the official Michigan highway service map was the first to show M-28 extended along US 41 into Marquette County and east over the former M-25 through Munising and Newberry, before ending in downtown Sault Ste.

While the expressway was being built, a large vein of jasper exposed, and gifts fashioned from the mineral were presented to local and state politicians.

A set of cufflinks to be given to President John F. Kennedy was never presented because he was killed in Dallas just hours after the Marquette Bypass opened to traffic.

MDOT decided in favor of a two-lane, 150-foot-wide (46 m) roundabout retaining the right-turn lanes from the previous intersection layout.

[55] MDOT engineers touted the constant-flowing nature of the design as a benefit to the new intersection, and city planners promoted the enhanced safety aspects of the project.

The designers consulted officials of Avon, Colorado, where several roundabouts are situated in a location that averages over 300 inches (760 cm) of annual snowfall.

[72] The middle section is left in an intermediate position for the warmer nine months of the year so that vehicle traffic can use the lower deck of the lift span and pleasure craft can pass under the bridge.

[74] The Interstate Bridge was completely replaced starting on November 1, 2004, in a joint project between the MDOT and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

1" and served as the prototype for hundreds of similar concrete through-girder bridges built in the state before the design fell out of favor in 1930.

It was bypassed by a new structure built over the Peshekee River for US 41/M-28 and subsequently abandoned as a roadway, deteriorating in a county park.

The structure was completed in 1948 as a steel arch bridge to span the river near the falls as part of a reconstruction project of US 41 between Ishpeming and L'Anse.

[79] The Fanny Hooe Creek crossing was listed on the NRHP in 1999,[67] but as of 2012[update], MDOT has not included the structure on its inventory of historic bridges online.

The roadway followed US 41's predecessor, M-15, and included numerous road signs bearing Sheridan's silhouette mounted on his horse Rienzi.

[83] The Amvets Memorial Drive designation was created for the section of US 2/US 41/M-35 between the northern Escanaba city limits and CR 426 in Delta County.

The designation was created in 1986 and continues east along M-28 to honor the longest serving member of the Michigan Legislature, elected to a record 21 terms before his death in 1994.

[43] The entire business loop was turned back to local control in a "route swap" between the City of Marquette and MDOT announced in early 2005.

[92] The transfer would increase Marquette's operational and maintenance liability expenses by $26,000 (equivalent to $38,987 in 2023[23]) and place the financial burden of the future replacement of a stop light on the city.