This cache is hidden on the CIS Trail, formerly the grade of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. Please do not attempt to park at the trail on Shepardsville road. Park at the trailhead in Ovid or at the parking coordinate provided.
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Shepardsville DGH&M/GTC depot, 1907.
Shepardsville:
A settlement known as Shepard's Station was platted in 1856 by William Shepard, owner of a general store here. He also built a sawmill and gristmill. A post office named Ovid Centre, for its location in Ovid Township, opened here on May 14th, 1857, with Mr. Shepard as its post master. The post office and settlement were renamed Shepardsville on January 11th, 1867.
Shepardsville, 1875 plat.
The little settlement had a population of 200 in 1877, and two or three general stores, a hotel, the grist mill, and a stave manufacture. The populous included a cobbler, carpenters, a painter a stave manufacture, a blacksmith and a lawyer. Three large fires nearly did the town in in the 1870s. The first took the Stave Mill in 1871. The second burned a block of businesses on Main Street in 1872 or 3. The third burned a cheese factory in 1880. Near the turn of the century, the population peaked at about 250. The post office lasted until June 15th, 1935. A 1938 Grand Trunk Western timetable still shows Shepardsville as a flag stop for daily trains 19 Westbound and 22 Eastbound between Grand Rapids and Detroit.
Site of the D&M/DGH&M/GTW depot at Shepardsville
The D&M:
The Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad was created in 1855 as a consolidation of the Oakland and Ottawa Railroad and the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad. The D&M then built a cross-state line from Pontiac to Grand Haven where a cross-lake ferry service was established. The line reached Owosso on July 1st 1856, St. Johns on January 14th1857, and Ionia on August 12th, 1857.
In 1878, the D&M went into receivership and was purchased by the Great Western Railroad, who reorganized it as the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee. In 1882, the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada gained control of the Great Western. On November 1st, 1928 the DGH&M was merged into the Grand Trunk Western, a subsidiary of theCanadian National Railway.
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.
Sources:
- Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad, Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway
Grand Trunk Western Railroad
- Fred Meijer Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail
- Ovid Township History
- Clinton Northern Railway
- Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1877, R.L. Polk & Co.
- Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1897, R.L. Polk & Co.
- Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1907, R.L. Polk & Co.
- Michigan Railroads & Railroad Companies, Meints, Graydon M., Michigan State University Press, © 1992./li />
- Michigan Railroad Lines, Meints, Graydon M., Michigan State University Press, © 2005.
- Michigan Place Names, Romig, Walter, Wayne State University Press, © 1986.
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