The site of this cache is on the White Pine Trail at the depot shared by the Pennsylvania Railroad and Pere Marquette Railroad in Howard City. Parking is available.
GR&I depot, Howard City, Michigan, courtesy of RRHX
During the railroad building boom, Howard City was the recipient of three rail lines. All three lines shared the depot built by the GR&I. Today, a much smaller remnant of the depot is owned by the city and used as a farm market.
The first to come to town was the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. The GR&I spent thirteen years as a paper company before finally opening service between Grand Rapids and Cedar Springs on Christmas Day, 1867. By the middle of 1869, the rails were down as far as Morley and on to Paris in the fall of 1870. Trackage was also completed between Grand Rapids and Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1871, the GR&I acquired the Cincinnati, Richmond and Fort Wayne Railroad Company, extending the GR&I to Cincinnati. Trackage was extending northward as well. By late 1872, a branch was completed between Walton to Traverse City. By the end of 1873, the line reached Petoskey and in 1882, Mackinaw City, becoming the longest north-south line in the country, at that time. As such, it had a large role in the settlement of northern Michigan. The primary business in the early years was timber and lumber. This shifted to tourism and advertised itself as “The Fishing Line”. In partnership with the Michigan Central Railroad, the company built and opened the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in 1887. In 1918, the GR&I was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merged to become the Penn Central Railroad in 1976, the PC abandoned many miles of Michigan rail lines, including all of the old GR&I north of Comstock Park. The Michigan DOT purchased it and contracted the Michigan Northern Railroad to operate it until 1984. Today, most of the line is gone. The portion between Grand Rapids and Cadillac has become the White Pine Trail.
The second line to reach Howard City, approaching from the southeast in 1871, was the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan. It used a wide corridor that is clearly visible from the cache site. There was a small railroad yard in that corridor. This portion of the line was built from Ionia to Greenville, then on to Gowen, Trufant, Maple Valley, Coral and Howard City. In 1872, the DL&LM acquired the Ionia, Stanton and Northern Railroad. In 1876, the DL&LM, became part of the the Detroit, Lansing and Northern.
The third line approached from the north-east, from Saginaw, through Edmore and Lakeview, and used the right of way that is now Legion street. In 1873, the Saginaw Valley and St. Louis Railroad built from Saginaw to St Louis. In 1875, the Saginaw and Grand Rapids Railroad connected St. Louis and Alma. Also in 1875, the Chicago, Saginaw and Canada Railroad built the line between St. Louis, Alma, Elwell, Riverdale, Vestaburg and Cedar Lake. In 1878, the CS&C, in receivership, extended the line from Cedar Lake to Edmore where it connected with the DL&N line from Ionia through Stanton. In 1879, the CS&C extended the line through Six Lakes to Lakeview. In 1883, the CS&C and S&GR were reorganized as the Saginaw and Western Railroad. In 1886, the S&W extended the line through Amble, then southwest into Howard City.
Partial plat of Howard City in 1921, with GR&I and PM railroads. The depot is in blue.
On December 21st, 1876, the DL&N was reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad and on January 1st, 1897, consolidated the SV&SL, S&GR, S&W, and and the Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit Railroad. Just three years later, in December, 1899, the DGR&W, the Chicago and West Michigan Railway and the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad were purchased by the Pere Marquette Railroad, which began operating the new line on January 1st, 1900.
The PM controlled (1900), then bought (1903) a connecting line from Lowell to Belding, and built a connecting line from Greenville through Sidney to Stanton in 1901, completing an alternate route between Saginaw and Grand Rapids. It made the lines between Ionia and Stanton and Ionia and Howard City redundant. The line between Ionia and Stanton was abandoned by the PM in 1933. The line between Greenville and Ionia was abandoned in 1942. The line between Greenville and Howard City was abandoned in 1943. The line between Lakeview and Howard City was abandoned and removed in 1943, leaving Howard City with its original north-south line until it, too, was abandoned in 1984.
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