SWS - Pewamo on the D&M (GT) Traditional Geocache

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

Pewamo D&M/DGH&M/GT depot, late 1800s.

Pewamo CIS Trail Head building, a replica of the original depot.

Pewamo:

The settlement of Pewamo was founded when the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad built a station in 1857. The village was surveyed that year and the plat recorded in 1859. The name Pewamo was given by J.C. Blanchard for Chief Pewamo, a friend and hunting partner along the Grand River. A post office was opened on July 14^th, 1857 with Hiram W. Blanchard, postmaster. The village was incorporated in 1871.

By the 1877, the village had started to grow and had a population of 500. The surrounding land had been cleared and developed into good farming land producing wheat, oats, corn and fruit. The town had a hotel, saloon, general store, grocery store, a butcher, a hardware store, a millinery, a billiard hall, a livery stable, a grain dealer, a cobbler, a blacksmith, a furniture maker, a flour mill and a saw mill. The populous included two physicians and a probate judge. In 1897, the population had settled at 400 with several additional business in the town. The current population is 469 at the 2010 census.

Pewamo, 1875 partial plat .

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.

For additional fun:

Pewamo got into the creation of the Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee trail and built a replica of the depot at the town's trailhead. Please pay it a visit on your trip through town, enjoy the trail, and take good care of it.

Sources:

• Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad, Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway
  Grand Trunk Western Railroad
• Fred Meijer Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail
• Ovid Township History
• Wikipedia: Pewamo
• RRHX: Pewamo
• Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1877, R.L. Polk & Co.
• Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1897, R.L. Polk & Co.
• 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.