SWS - Johannesburg on the GTL&N (MC) Traditional Cache

This cache is available during business hours only. It is on private property of the Depot Restaurant, with their permission. The restaurant building is a replacement for the original Michigan Central depot and the restaurant, that was badly damaged when a car ran in to it in 2001.

^{"Photo courtesy of Michigan Railroad History (RRHX), Mark Worrall collection."}
MC train at Johannesburg depot, circa 1906,

Johannesburg:

Johannesburg was incorporated as a village in 1901 by the Johannesburg Manufacturing Company, a lumber and sawmill operation. The town was named for Johanna Hanson Bay, sister of Rasmus Hanson. This was the same Hanson family that donated a vast tract of land now used as the Grayling Military Reservation and the Hanson Game Refuge. Hanson, Nels Michelson and Ernest Salling owned and operated the company and several other lumber related businesses around northern Michigan. The company lasted until just prior to the stock market crash of 1929. The company store they owned still stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

^{"Photo courtesy of Michigan State Historic Preservation Office"}
Downtown Johannesburg looking east. Depot is background right.

Grayling, Twin Lakes and Northeastern Railroad:

The rail line into Johannesburg was originally at the end of the Clear Lake branch off the Twin Lakes branch of the Michigan Central. The branch left the Twin Lakes branch at Clear Lake Junction, just northeast of Lovells in northeast Crawford County, and ran north. The line was built as the Grayling, Twin Lakes & Northeastern Railroad in 1892, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad. Both railroads were operated by the >MC. In 1901, the GTL&N became part of the JL&S and in 1905 the JL&S became part of the MC. In 1910, Johannesburg was served by one passenger train daily each way to Grayling. In ~1912, Johannesburg was also connected to an MC Bagley branch out of Sallings (south of Gaylord). In 1930, the New York Central took over operations of the MC and abandoned the Bagley and Clear Lake branches by 1931 and the Twin Lakes branch by 1933.

Be considerate of the host restaurant owners and if you are hungry, give their wares a try. You won’t be disappointed. Their breakfast menu is personally highly recommended and so are their homemade pies. There are several interesting photographs and other displays within. The Seth Thomas depot tower clock is truly a marvel.