Daylight Only! This cache is near the former grade of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad through a small settlement known as Lincoln Lake or Lincoln Lake Station. The cache is on private property (Pink and Frillos, formerly Rees Country Corner), with permission from both past and present owners, and is only available during daylight hours. Please respect this as the owners don't need to worry about people wandering their property in the dark. There is poison ivy in the area, so watch your step. This added a little to the difficulty.
Lincoln Lake Station, Grand Trunk Western Ry, formerly Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon
The settlement of Lincoln Lake started life as a post office called Lorenzo. The office was established April 13th, 1888 about a half mile west of the cache site, with a farmer, Lorenzo D. Thomas, as the first post master. The post office was transferred to Lincoln Lake (Station) on July 16th, 1901. The settlement consisted of the post office, a general store and produce market and a small depot on the property of the current store. Lincoln Lake Station was 45½ miles from Ashley. The next stations to the east and west were Greenville and Harvard. The plat below shows its proximity with Harvard. While no population is listed in either the 1897 or 1907 Michigan State Gazetteer, there was a community here with a population reported in railroad reports at around 10. The former post office building is the small yellow structure west of Lincoln Lake road. There was once a gas station/boarding house on the north-west corner, across from the store building. The current store was once the school. Potatoes were shipped by rail from a building east of the store. There was a siding between Lincoln Lake station and Banks Lake for the Michigan Marl and Fertilizer Company. The siding was removed in 1921 leaving very little business at the station. The Lincoln Lake station subsequently closed and was removed in 1935.
1907 plat of the area around Lincoln Lake Station
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, the 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 (passenger only) and a mixed train (with passenger and freight service) was operated daily between Owosso (over 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. Service continued to the to Greenville until January 11, 1983.
The grade passed behind the Pink and Frillos Store on the corner and crossed Macclain west of the intersection. Thank you to the April at Pink and Frillos for continuing to host this cache on the store property. The Rees Country Corners store closed a few months after the cache was placed. We are fortunate that the previous owner allowed us to keep the cache here and the new owners have agreed to keep it. Please continue to respect them and only seek this cache during daylight hours.
Route of the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Ry.
Sources:
TS&M history.
[agh]
