This cache is near the site of a former railroad junction on the Pere Marquette railroad at a place called both Haynor and Stanton Junction. The posted coordinates are where the junction was. The cache is not at the posted coordinates. To locate the cache, solve the puzzle below based on contents of the cache description.
Atlas of Ionia County, Michigan, J.B. Beers & Co., 1891, UofM Digital Library
Partial plat of Easton Township, Ionia County, showing the beginning of the Stanton Branch at "Stanton Junction"
Haynor:
Stanton Junction, later called Haynor, was the southernmost point on the original Ionia, Stanton and Northern Railroad. It started as nothing more than a track switch and telegraph office at the junction with the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad line from Ionia to Howard City. The operator was responsible for aligning the switch the correct way for either the rail line through Greenville or the Stanton Branch. Stanton Junction came to be known by the locals as Haynor Depot. Pre-1900 plats of Easton Township, like the 1891 version shown here, use the name Stanton Junction. Post 1900 plats show the junction as Haynor. The plat shows the location in relationship to Ionia to the south. The line curved north from the west side of Ionia, up the grade known as The Big Hill. Helper service (a second locomotive at the back of the train, pushing) was often needed to get a train up the hill. The plat also shows the Stanton Branch, which was the IS&N, running north from the junction and the Howard City line, which was the DL&LM, heading north-west. After the 1901 construction of a line from Greenville, through Sidney to Stanton, the switch just south of Stanton where the new line and the old connected, was then named Stanton Junction, according to some sources.
Ionia, Stanton and Northern Railroad
The Ionia and Lansing Railroad extended its existing line from Ionia, through Warden (name of the station at the Ionia Prison), Orleans (formerly known as Palmers), Chadwick, Kidd and on to Greenville in 1870. That same year, the line was purchased and consolidated into the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad. The goal was to reach Pentwater on the Lake Michigan shoreline. In 1872, the Patterson Railroad completed a 1.67 mile line from Kidd into Belding (formerly known as Patterson Mills). Upon completion, that line became part of the DL&LM. Also in 1872, the Ionia, Stanton and Northern built a line from the DL&LM at Stanton Junction, just north of Ionia, through Sheridan, to Stanton. In 1876 the DL&LM, in receivership, and the IS&N were reorganized as part of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad. In 1896 the DL&N was reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad. In 1899, the Grand Rapids, Belding and Saginaw Railroad extended its recently purchased Lowell and Hastings railroad from Lowell to Belding, connecting with the DGR&W which apparently had a lease of the GRB&S. This line opened on January 1, 1899 by the Pere Marquette Railroad and eventually became the main line between Saginaw and Grand Rapids.
The line through Lowell, Belding and Greenville became the PM mainline from Grand Rapids to Saginaw and made the DL&LM and IS&N lines somewhat redundant. The IS&N line to Stanton was abandoned by 1933. The original DL&LM line from Ionia to Kidd(ville) was abandoned in 1942.
Cache:
To locate the cache, solve this simple puzzle based mostly on information in the cache description.
N 43 00.ABC W 085 05.DEF
- A = The third digit in the length of the Patterson Railroad.
- B = The number of letters in the town below the big hill.
- C = The number of letters in the device the telegraph operator at Stanton Junction was responsible for aligning, minus 1.
- D = The third digit in the year the IS&N was built from Stanton Junction to Stanton.
- E = The third digit in the year the original DL&LM line from Ionia to Kidd was abandoned.
- F = The fourth digit in the year the IS&N was built from Stanton Junction to Stanton.
Sources:
Ionia and Lansing Railroad
Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railraod
Patterson Railroad
Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad
Grand Rapids, Belding and Saginaw Railroad
Pere Marquette Railroad
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