This cache a two stage multi beginning at the posted coordinates on the former grade of the Pennsylvania Railroad, now the Musketawa Trail. Stage 1 is just over half a kilometer from the parking coordinates.
Photo courtesy of Clarke Historical Library, CMU, Charles Conn Collection, used with permission of Mr. Conn.
Eastbound GR&I passenger train at Ravenna Depot
The Ravenna area was first settled in 1844 when E.B. Bostwick erected a sawmill. Three years Later, others established a town at the site and created a township government in 1848. The township was originally part of Ottawa County, but became part of Muskegon County when that county was established in 1859. A post office was first established here on February 9th, 1848. The town suffered major fires in 1900 and 1902 that devastated the business district. The 1900 fire destroyed ten business and at least two homes. Since one of the business destroyed was the telephone office, help was summoned via the MGR&I telegraph office and a doctor was rushed to the town on a special train to tend to the badly injured proprietor of the Ravenna House, Marion Higgins, who was struck by an exploding cylinder from the soda fountain of a nearby drug store. Unfortunately the injuries were so severe that he died. Fire fighting equipment was also quicly delivered by rail to help quell the blaze. Ravenna survives today as a village of around 1200 people.
The Muskegon, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad came through Ravenna in 1886. A station and watering stop were established here. The MGR&I was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. In 1904, the depot here was nearly destroyed by fire when a box car full of freight for local Ravenna Merchants caught fire next to the depot. Men pushed the burning box car away from the depot before it too was engulfed. The last water tower was recently reconstructed by friends of the Musketawa Trail.
The GR&I spent thirteen years as a paper company before being built. Service began between Grand Rapids and Cedar Springs on Christmas Day, 1867. By the middle of 1869, the rails were down as far as Morley and on to Paris in the fall of 1870. Trackage was also completed between Grand Rapids and Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1871, the GR&I acquired the Cincinnati, Richmond & Fort Wayne Railroad Company, extending the GR&I to Cincinnati. Trackage was extending northward as well. By late 1872, a branch was completed between Walton to Traverse City. By the end of 1873, the line reached Petoskey and in 1882, Mackinaw City, becoming the longest north-south line in the country, at that time. As such, it had a large role in the settlement of northern Michigan. In 1886, the railroad also built this line connecting Grand Rapids and Muskegon as the Muskegon, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad.
The primary business in the early years was timber and lumber. This shifted to tourism and the GR&I advertised itself as "The Fishing Line". In partnership with the Michigan Central Railroad, the company built and opened the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in 1887. In 1918, the GR&I was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which operated it until 1975. The Michigan DOT purchased it and leased it to the Michigan Northern Railroad until 1984.
In the case of the MGR&I, the Grand Trunk Western Railroad purchased the deteriorated line on April 1st, 1976. By 1978, however, GTW rail car ferry operation ended and the line became unprofitable. GTW sold its entire line from Durand to Grand Rapids and Muskegon to the Central Michigan Railroad on September 4th, 1987. The CMR was unable to sustain business on the line and by the end of 1989, service was discontinued on the original MGR&I, leaving CSX as the sole rail providers into Muskegon. The line from Walker to Muskegon was abandoned on December 14th, 1989. The remainder of the line, from Muskegon Junction to Walker had previously been abandoned in two phases, in 1961 and 1983.
Today, the most of the MGR&I has been converted into the Musketawa Trail, open to hikers, bikers and horseback riders.
Sources:
Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad depot photos/
Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad
Ravenna Area Historical Society Blog
Michigan Place Names, Walter Romig, L.H.D., © Wayne State University Press, 1986
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