SWS - Fowler on the D&M (GT) Multi-Cache

This cache is not at the posted coordinates. To find its location, solve the field puzzle below.

Former GTW Fowler Witch's Hat depot, 2005, moved and restored as a private home.

Fowler:

Fowler got its start about three quarters of a mile east of the town center. John Parks opened a post office named Dallas, after the township, near the east township line on January 18^th, 1849. Robert Higham, the chief engineer of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, chose Dallas as a site for a village and station in 1856. He and with E.A. Wales bought a 160 acre parcel of land and platted the village in 1857 and erected a small station. The settlement was in the middle of a swampy area and was moved in 1867, lock, stock and barrel (including a hotel, post office and other buildings) to the first section line west, to land owned by John N. Fowler. Mr. Fowler called the new village Isabella. The hotel, known as the Fowler House had a nice ring to the locals who influenced the name change to Fowler. The village plat was recorded on February 1^st, 1870. Fowler flourished in its new location.

Local rail passenger service to the town continued until 1950. Through service between Detroit and Grand Rapids continued until 1969. In 1972, the depot, a classic GTW Whitches Hat depot, similar to ones still existing in South Lyons and Saranac, was sold and moved to become a private residence. The beautiful new trail head building for the CIS trail, a block west of the posted coordinates, is designed in the likeness of the old depot.

Fowler, 1915 partial plat

Portion of Dallas Township showing Fowler and the former location of Dallas.

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 1^st 1856, St. Johns on January 14^th1857, and Ionia on August 12^th, 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 1^st, 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.

The Cache:

To find the cache, solve this field puzzle starting at the posted coordinates. The final is at

• N 43° 00.ABC W 084° 43.DEF
  
  
• A = the single digit number on the west end of the building to the east, on the north side of the trail (above the barn doors).
• B = the second digit of the year the lumber company was established, on the west end of the blue building, facing Main Street.
• C = the number of letters on the creature painted on the village water tower.
• D = the number of letters on the word at the top of the pedestal clock.
• E = the second digit of the three digit number on the building across the street and north of the clock.
• F = The fourth digit of the year the lumber company was established, divided by two.
  
  
• Check your solution

Sources:

• Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad, Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway
  Grand Trunk Western Railroad
• Fred Meijer Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail
• Village of Fowler History
• RRHX Fowler
• Michigan Railroads & Railroad Companies, Meints, Graydon M., Michigan State University Press, © 1992.
• Michigan Railroad Lines, Meints, Graydon M., Michigan State University Press, © 2005.
• Michigan Place Names, Romig, Walter, Wayne State University Press, © 1986