SWS - Orleans on the DL&LM (PM) Mystery Cache

The location of this is near the former right of way of the Pere Marquette rail line through Orleans. The grade runs southeast to northwest through the posted coordinates, the location of the former depot. The cache is not at the posted coordinates. To locate the cache, solve the puzzle based on information in the description.

^{"Photo courtesy of Michigan Railroad History (RRHX), Alan Loftis collection."}
Southbound PM Train at Orleans

Orleans:

The village of Orleans was first settled in 1835 and was originally known as Palmer. By the time the rail line from Ionia came through, the name was in the process of being changed to Orleans, but appeared both ways in atlases of the day. Orleans is still an active post office and has a telephone company switching station, but no other businesses of substance. The Orleans School has become Threshold Academy, a charter school. Threshold Academy

Ionia and Lansing Railroad:

The Ionia and Lansing Rail Road Company was incorporated on November 13^th, 1865 with the purpose to own 34 miles of railroad line from Lansing to Ionia. The articles of incorporation were amended on January 13^th, 1869 to with a new goal of a 125 mile line terminating at the mouth of the Pentwater River. Construction began in 1869 and the line opened between Lansing and Portland on November 18^th and reached Ionia in December of that year.

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 Palmer), 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. The DL&LM extended the line from Greenvile to Howard City by the end of November, 1871. That is as far as the line was ever built.

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 Stanton Junction (later called Haynor), 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 new Grand Rapids to Saginaw main line made the lines north and north-west of Ionia 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. The DL&LM extension between Greenville and Howard City was abandoned in 1943.

Cache:

To locate the cache, solve this simple puzzle based mostly on information in the cache description. The cache is further from the posted coordinates than most of my caches due to the “a high muggle quotient”, other local caches, and cache hiding rules.

N 43 02.ABC W 085 07.DEF

1. A = Second digit in the length of the Patterson Railroad
2. B = Number of letters in first word of _____ & Lansing Railroad.
3. C = Fourth digit of the year the DL&N was reorganized as the DGR&W
4. D = Fourth digit of the year the IS&N was built
5. E = Third digit of the year the IS&N line was abandoned
6. F = Fourth digit of the year the IS&N line was abandoned

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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