In 1917, the idea of using painted center lines on rural state highways was conceived and/or put into action in at least three states (Michigan, Oregon, and California), apparently completely independent of one another.[30] At some point in 1917, a white highway center line was painted along "Dead Man's Curve" on what is now County Road 492 in Marquette County, Michigan,[2] under the direction of Kenneth Ingalls Sawyer, who served as engineer-superintendent of the Marquette County Road Commission.[31][32][33] Sawyer was inducted posthumously into the Michigan Transportation Hall of Honor in 1973.[34]