Daylight Only. The location of this cache is near the beginning of the Hemmingway Spur of the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad, at a place once called Slaght's Track. The old line between Stanton and McBride(s), now part of the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail.
"Photo by A.G. Hudley - 2014."
The Hemmingway Spur grade is on left, leaving the main (FMHT), heading north-west to Hemmingway Lake and Slaght's Mill.
"Photo by A.G. Hudley - 2014."
The Hemmingway Spur grade is clearly visible in the background a ways north of the cache.
Slaght's Mill:
Slagth's Mill, sometimes called Slaghtville, was a small village built around a sawmill at Hemmingway Lake, about three miles north of Stanton. It was created about 1875 when Nathaniel Slaght, a prominent logger and farmer from Greenville, built a sawmill on the north shore of Hemmingway Lake. A general store was built to support the community, and in ~1881, Day Township District No. 6 school was built. On September 28th, 1884, a Union church was dedicated. At its peak, Slagth's Mill had a population near two hundred.
Slaght owned and harvested 2,400 acres of pine timber in Belvidere, Day and Douglas townships. A considerable amount of that timber was floated down the Flat River to Greenville. Slaght built his mill to cut his timber to far east to use the Flat, and instead shipped it from Stanton via the railroad that had just been built there from Ionia. In 1877 or 1878, as the rail line was extended through McBride and on to Edmore, a short spur, known as Hemmingway's Spur, was built from a place known as Slaght's Track on the the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad to the mill town. A station and telegraph office were built at the mill site.
Slaght's original mill burned in March of 1880. Almost immediately, what was left was sold to Mather Brothers, who had a contract to deliver sawn lumber. The brothers disassembled and moved their mill from of Matherton, near Ionia, to Hemmingway Lake. In September of that year, the mill was leased to John W. Mills. The last of Slaght's timber was harvested in April, 1883 and the mill was sold to F.N. Wright & Co., owners of a Wright Sawmill in Greenville. The new owners were cutting timber off lands they owned nearby. The purchase saved the company shipping charges for logs to be shipped to Greenville to be cut, and the Greenville mill was soon closed. By 1890, the timber harvest in northern Montcalm County was complete and mills abandoned or were dismantled and moved elsewhere. The store, railroad spur and its station and telegraph office was gone and what was left of the community lost the original identity and informally took on the name Hemingway, for the lake. Most of the population moved on, and those who didn’t turned to farming. The small community hung on into the 20th century, but the coming of better roads and the automobile made McBride and Stanton more desirable alternatives. The church was closed in 1923, Slaght’s Mill was forgotten and Hemingway was a fading memory.
Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad:
The rail line was originally incorporated and built as the Ionia, Stanton and Northern Railroad and was completed to Stanton in 1872. It was acquired by the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad on October 1st, 1872. The DL&LM was reorganized as the Detriot, Lansing and Northern in 1876. The line was extended from Stanton, through McBrides to Edmore in 1878. The Hemmingway Spur, apparently referred to by the railroad as Slaght's Track, was built at the same time, but had a short life. It was abandoned in 1880. The DL&N was extended to Big Rapids in 1880, likely reusing the rail originally laid to Slaght's Mill.
The DL&N reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad in 1897 before being bought by the Pere Marquette in December, 1899. In 1901, The PM built a line from Greenville through Sidney to Stanton. This connection allowed the line from Elmdale, south of Lowell, through Edmore, then eastward, the main line between Grand Rapids and Saginaw. This line saw heavy traffic well into the 1970s. It also made the old IS&N, from Haynor to Stanton, redundant. Traffic on the IS&N was greatly reduced and it was eventually abandoned by the PM in 1933. In 1947, the PM became part of the its parent. the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. The C&O became part of CSX Corporation in 1980, but maintained its identity until a formal merger with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1987, creating CSX Transportation. Shortly after, the line from the north Greenville, through Sidney, Stanton and McBrides to Edmore was abandoned. The grade became the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail and was eventually extended to Alma.
Parking for the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail is available in both Stanton, just south of McDonalds, and on the south end of McBrides.
Sources:
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