This cache is on Kent County road right north of the former railroad crossing at Elmdale. The grade of the long abandoned north-south line can be clearly seen coming from the north on the east side of Montcalm Avenue (the county line), and crossing right at the cache site to interchange with the east-west (existing) line. The north-south grade is more difficult to follow south, toward Freeport. Don't walk the grade, as it is on private property. Please do NOT record the milepost (mp) value from the cache label or log sheet in your log or in an image attached to your log. This is for an upcoming challenge.
Elmdale Station, photo by aghudley on the day of the hide.
The village of Elmdale is not much more than a gathering of several houses, but at one time was a stop on the Lowell and Hastings Railroad and the Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit. A post office opened there on January 28th, 1889, with Leonard E. Lott as postmaster. The post office operated until 1940. The station there, on the east-west line, never had a passenger waiting room, or a freight room. It was built as an interlocking station between the east-west line, which was the main line between Grand Rapids and Lansing, and the north-south line, which became the Grand Rapids to Saginaw main line. Still, one could get on or off the train at Elmdale until the end of passenger service. The station at Elmdale still stands, but is in bad disrepair.
Two rail lines crossed at Elmdale. The first to arrive was the Lowell and Hastings (north-south) in 1887. The L&H got its start in 1883 when the Kalamazoo, Lowell and North Michigan Railroad was incorporated as a 3' gauge line to build a 68 mile long line from Kalamazoo, via Hastings and Lowell to Smyrna. The line was never constructed. The rights to the proposed line were sold the Hastings, Lowell and Northern Michigan on August 29th, 1883 (north of Hastings), and on December 31st, 1884 to the Chicago, Kalamazoo and Saginaw (south of Hastings). The HL&NM was incorporated on May 18th, 1883 to build the 32 miles from Hastings to Smyrna, as a standard gauge line. The HL&NM was, in turn, sold to the Lowell and Hastings Railroad on May 31st, 1887.
The L&H had a more modest goal of connecting Hastings with Lowell. Construction was completed and the line opened in December, 1887, on the segment from Freeport to Lowell. The line was graded to the south edge of Freeport, but was never extended to Hastings. On May 1st, 1899, the L&H was sold to the Grand Rapids, Belding and Saginaw Railroad, which extended the line from Lowell to Belding, opening that line on January 1st, 1900, under control of the Pere Marquette Railroad. The PM purchased the GRB&S outright in 1903. The line north of Elmdale, to Belding, Greenville, Stanton, Edmore, and points east became part of the Pere Marquette main line between Grand Rapids and Saginaw, and saw heavy traffic for several decades. The portion of the original L&H between Elmdale and Freeport was abandoned by the Pere Marquette in 1935.
The second line to arrive in Elmdale was the Grand Rapids, Lansing & Detroit (east-west), a subsidiary of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad, in 1888. The DL&N was reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western in 1896-7. It was purchased by the Pere Marquette in 1899, which became part of the C&O in 1947 and CSX in 1987. This line is still heavily used.
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