GC5Q0V9 SWS - Ovid on the D&M (GT) (Traditional Cache) in Michigan, United States created by Silent Whistles

This cache has been archived.

Silent Whistles: Way too late doing this. My "day job" is keeping me way too busy to get out much.

GC5Q0V9 ▼

A cache by Silent Whistles Message this owner

Hidden : 3/30/2015

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This cache is hidden on the CIS Trail, formerly the grade of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad

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Photo courtesy of RRHX (MichiganRailroads.com), Alan Loftis Collection. Click photo for more.
Grand Trunk Depot, Ovid, around the turn of the century

Ovid:

The first settler in the Ovid area was Samuel Barker, in 1836. Twenty years later, in 1856, B.I. Udell opened a general store. The Park House Hotel was built around that time and its manager, Josiah B. Park, became the first postmaster on February 25^th, 1857. One of the chief land owners was H.G. Higham, chief engineer of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, who got the railroad to build a station here. The village was platted in 1858 and incorporated in 1869. The name came from William Swarthout who came here from Ovid, NY.

Map courtesy of UofM Digital Library, marked up by AGHudley. Click plat to view atlas.
Ovid, 1915. Depot and Freight House are in red, right of center.

Ovid quickly grew and had a population of 1200 by 1877, with three churches, a hotel, a brick school, many businesses and skilled tradsmen, and a newspaper. In another twenty years, the town had grown even more and the population had risen to 1450. Today, the population is 1600, most of which live on the Clinton County side of the line with Shiawassee County.

Photo Courtesy of FriendsofOvid Historical Society. Click photo for more.
Another view of the depot with water tower in the background.

The Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad:

On February 13^th, 1855, the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway Company was chartered by the State of Michigan with the purpose of building a cross-state railroad from Detroit to Lake Michigan. This was to be the northern most of three such charters. On April 19^th of that year, the Oakland and Ottawa Railroad and the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad were consolidated into the D&M. The line was controlled in 1857 by Great Western Railway, a Canadian corporation. The D&M extended the existing routs by building a cross-state line from Pontiac to Grand Haven where a cross-lake ferry service was established. The line reached Owosso on July 1^st 1856, St. Johns on January 14^th1857, and Ionia on August 12^th, 1857.

On April 15^th, 1875, the D&M went into receivership. On September 4^th, 1878 a forclosure sale was complete and the railroad was sold to and reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway Company, controlled by the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. On November 1^st, 1928 the DGH&M, along with several other subsidiaries, was formally merged into the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company, itself a subsidiary of theCanadian National Railway.

Photo by AGHudley © 2015.
Former Ovid GTW Freight House, still standing. This photo was taken from the site of the depot.

In 1930, the GTW moved its cross-lake car ferry service from Grand Haven to Muskegon and operated it there until 1977, abandoning its route to Grand Haven and eventually purchasing a line west of Marne and into Muskegon from the Pennsylvania Railroad. After the ferry service ended, business declined. In 1987 the line from Owosso to Muskegon was sold to Central Michigan Railroad. In 1993, the Grand Rapids and Eastern bought the portion between Fuller (in Grand Rapids) and Ionia and operates it as far as Lowell, primarily serving the flour mill there. The portion from Lowell to Ionia was abandoned and has become the Fred Meijer Grand River Valley Trail. The portion from Owosso to Ionia has just become the Fred Meijer Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail. After two plus years, the crushed limestone trail is nicely packed and easy to ride.