The site of this cache is near the former flag stop of Eureka Place on the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. The cache is on rural road right-of-way. Please stay out of the farmer's field.
Eureka Place
According to the 1897 Michigan Gazetteer and Business Directory, Eureka Place was a flag station on the Grand Trunk Railroad. The stop and siding served a large farm. No business or population are listed.
In 1887-89, a railroad line originally known as the Toledo, Saginaw and Muskegon, was constructed between Ashley and Muskegon. Rails reached Carson City in September of 1887, Greenville in November of 1887, Cedar Springs and Muskegon by the end of the year. Construction continued in 1888 for ballasting, sidings and depots. On August 1st, 1888, a lease of the TS&M to the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada was completed. GTC later purchased the line outright. A mail and express train and a mixed train (with passenger service) was operated daily between Owosso (over the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan to Ashley) and Muskegon. The line was locally known as the GT version of the Turkey Trail because it meandered like a turkey and also because it allegedly never made money.
In 1928, GTC was merged with other Michigan Grand Trunk subsidiaries into the Grand Trunk Western, itself a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway. In 1930, GTW secured trackage rights between Grand Rapids and Muskegon over the Pennsylvania Railroad (former Grand Rapids and Indiana) Muskegon Branch. Service on the Turkey Trail was reduced to way freights and mixed trains. In 1946, with heavy service operating over the PRR, the portion of the line between Greenville and Muskegon was abandoned.
Mixed train service continued leaving Durand, to Greenville and back each day until the end of 1955. On January 1st, 1956, this was reduced to a way freight turn daily. On January 11th, 1983, the last train left Greenville and the line was abandoned between Greenville and Carson City. The rails are still in place from Ashley to Carson City and were being occasionally operated from 1982 by the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay and since 2006, between Ashley and Middleton by the Great Lakes Central.
The grade passes through the site east to west, paralleling Station Road. The depot stood on the south side o the tracks, east of Grow Road (southbound). When the rail line was abandoned, there were still some foundations visible at the site. Since that time, all signs of the settlement have been obliterated by farming.
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