SWS (RMNE) - Lake Anne on the M&NE (PM) Traditional Cache

Manistee County Historical Museum

Cache:

This cache was hidden as part of the tRails Meandering North-Easterly Geocache Rail Tour, presented by Silent Whistles, the Manistee County Historical Museum and the Crawford County Historical Society and Museum. Record the milepost value contained on and/or in each cache container on the Ticket to Manistee form. See the To Claim a Prize section below for specific tour requirements. See the Resources section below for links to the Ticket to Manistee, Tour Cache List, and a Recommended Driving Route Map.

You are looking for a soda preform. Do not drive to GZ without 4WD and lots of clearance, especially on a busy caching day. There is very little opportunity to turn around here and a good opportunity to get stuck. It is best to park near the paved road and walk in. There are two tour caches on this trek.

^{Charles Conn Michigan Railroad Collection, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, used with permission of Mr. Conn.}
Second or possibly third M&NE depot, downtown Lake Ann.

Lake Ann:

Lake Ann was first settled in 1862 by a Mr. A.P. Wheelock, beside the lake he named for his wife. The M&NE railroad arrived here on Ocbober 13^th, 1890. It's first make-shift station, seen below, was at Ransom Creek, south of current town location. The 1877 Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory makes no mention of the town.

A post office was opened on January 30^th, 1891 with Elijah Ransom as postmaster. The village was incorporated in 1892. The 1897 Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory indicates a big change. The population was listed at 700, supporting two churches and a newspaper. Other sources say the population was closer to 1000. There were half a dozen stores and at least four mills, one of which would be the cause of much grief. Lake Ann was one of the largest towns in north-west Michigan.

^{Charles Conn Michigan Railroad Collection, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, used with permission of Mr. Conn.}
First M&NE "depot" at Lake Ann, near Ransom Creek.

On July 5^th, 1897, a fire started in the William Habbler Jr. planing mill, the largest in the area, on the north shore of the lake. and quickly spread to the depot and hotel, followed by the business district and most of the houses in town. Reports said fifty businesses and seventy-five homes were destroyed. A special train from Traverse City hauled some fire fighting equipment and fire fighters and helped save the town from complete oblivion. There were casualties in the fire, but the town rebuilt. One elderly lady escaped her burning home only to go back in to retrieve valuables. She did not make it out the second time.

^{Photo courtesy of J.Harlow collection.}
Overview of Lake Ann some time after the 1902 fire.
Depot is slightly left of center and just above center, left of two story building.

A second fire happened in January 27^th, 1902. Not much of the town had been rebuilt since the 1897 fire, so the 1902 fire was not near as devastating, but once again ravaged the business district. The fire started in a saloon after hours where a stove pipe passed through a wall. It spread to two stores and livery .,

^{Charles Conn Michigan Railroad Collection, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, used with permission of Mr. Conn.}
M&NE northbound train approaching Lake Ann.

The third major fire occurred on April 11^th, 1918. This time the business district was spared but many homes, a church and some barns, along with a mill, were destroyed. The wind was both the proponent and the savior to most of the town, as it blew away from the town center.

Somehow, the village of Lake Ann survived three major and several minor fires, survived the end of the lumber boom and remains today as a tight community on the shores of the lake its name was given from.

M&NE Main Line, Manistee-Traverse City:

^{1912 M&NE timetable, Mike Hankwitz collection.}

Construction of the main line began from Manistee in the spring of 1887. The line opened for freight business in October, 1888 and was completed as far as Bear Creek, 18 miles from Manistee, on January 14^th, 1889. On April 28^th, 1889, the line reached Lemon Lake, 25 miles from Manistee. By September 29^th, 1889, the line was open to Nessen City, 33 miles from Manistee. On June 1^st, 1890, the line was nearly 45 miles long and had reached Interlochen. On October 13^th, 1890, the rails reached Lake Ann, 52 miles from Manistee and only twelve miles from Traverse City, as the crow flies. A direct route would not be taken, however, and after winding another 18 miles north, then east, then south-east, the line reached Traverse City on June 25^th, 1892.

The line's sole purpose at its inception was to haul logs. The company purchased some passenger cars and began passenger service on January 6^th, 1889, with the first train reaching Bear Creek, 20 miles from Manistee (notice that this date conflicts with the date in the previous paragraph for when the line actually opened to Bear Creek, with the information from two different sources). The service was immediately popular and the M&NE began running two passenger trains daily. Through passenger service between Manistee and Traverse City was never a big draw but local passenger service was very popular. As time went on and the logging business dwindled, the railroad turned its attention to agriculture and general freight.

After the Pere Marquette took over the line, it reduced its redundant footprint in the area by closing the M&NE main line between Kaleva and Solon in Leelanau County on April 10^th, 1933, using its own line (the former Chicago and West Michigan main line to Petoskey) between Kalava and Traverse City instead. The Interstate Commerce Commision authorized the abandonmenton of the closed M&NE line between Kaleva and Solon on June 19^th, 1934. In 1947, the C&O merged the PM into itself, it took control of the M&NEx. In 1954, the C&O abandoned the five miles between Solon and Hatchs. On November 30^th, 1955, the C&O officially merged the M&NE into the parent company, thus ending the identity of the M&NE. It then then abandoned its own line between Baldwin and Kaleva in 1956, favoring the M&NE route between Manistee and Kaleva. In 1982, the C&O abandoned its line from Kaleva to Grawn and all of the remaining M&NE trackage outside of Manistee.

Sources:

• Manistee and Northeastern Railroad, michiganrailroads.com (RRHX)
• M&NE History, Trainweb.org
• Manistee and Northeastern Railroad (Wikipedia)
• Pere Marquette Historical Society: M&NE
• Manistee County Historical Museum
• Crawford County Historical Society
• History of Manistee and Northeastern Railway Company, Erwin F. Olsen © 1956 E.F. Olsen, UofM Digital Library and HathiTrust.
• Grand Traverse Journal: A History of Lake Ann's Disastrous Fires.
• Boom to Bankruptcy, The Story of the Manistee and Northeastern Railroad, Donald Stroup, Western Michigan University.
• Annual Report of the Commissioner of Railroads of the State of Michigan, for years 1889-1906, Google Books
• Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1877 and 1897, Google Books
• Michigan Place Names, Walter Romig, © 1986 Wayne State University Press
• Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies, Graydon M. Meints © 1992, Michigan State University Press
• Michigan Railroad Lines, Graydon M. Meints © 2005, Michigan State University Press
• Michigan Railroad Atlas, Volumes 1-4, Graydon M. Meints © 2017, Michigan State University Libraries
• In the Pines, An Atlas of Michigan Logging Railroads, James S. Hannum, M.D., © 2017 Hannum House Publications

To claim a prize:

1. Download and print the Ticket to Manistee (see Resources) and take it with you caching.
2. As an aide, download and print the RMNE Recommended Route Map (see Resources).
3. Follow the instructions on that form to find the required number and combination of the hides.
4. All hides in the tour are identified on the Ticket to Manistee and in the bookmark list.
5. Look for Mile Post values on the cache labels and log books to record on the form.
6. Please do not record the Mile Post values in your on-line log or they will be deleted.
7. Please do not post photos showing the Mile Post values with your on-line log.
8. Please do not post photos showing answers to field puzzles with your on-line log.
9. Each individual GC account holder making the find must sign and date the paper log book in the cache with their GC account name. No group logs please.
10. Send the completed form via US Mail to the address on the form or scan and send a digital copy using GC email or the GC message center. Each GC account holder must send in a form. One prize per completed form. One prize per GC Account. Multiple forms per mailing is encouraged.
    
    Once your answers have been verified, the prize will be sent back to you via US Mail to the address you provide on the form, while supplies last. One hundred prizes have been minted..
    
    

Resources:

• Ticket to Manistee (PDF).
• RMNE Recommended Route Map (PDF).
• SWS (RMNE) Bookmark List on gc.com.
• Bookmark lists for other Geocache Rail Tours:
  • SWS (RAAS): tRails Along the Au Sable (6/2016)
  • SWS (ARNC): Abandoned Railroads of Newaygo County (9/2014)
• Bookmark list for Entire Silent Whistle Series:
  • Silent Whistle Series

Contributors:

I would like to express my special thanks to the following people and organizations who have helped either directly or indirectly with this project:

• Charles Conn for allowing me to use of his collection of photographs at the Clarke Historical Library. Mr. Conn thought this would be a good non-profit way to share some history.
• Mark Fedder and the Manistee County Historical Museum for being gracious cohosts.
• Mike Hankwitz and Charles Showalter, both of whom provided a portion of their digital collection, both private and that of the Manistee County Historical Museum, in support of this project.
• The Crawford County Historical Society for being gracious cohosts and providing materials.
• The Traverse City District Library, for help with and blessing to use their digital library.
• Dr. James Hannum, for sharing research, opinions and guidance along the right of way.
• James Harlow for sharing many items out of his collection and his memories.
• Dale Berry and michiganrailroads.com, always a source of great information.
• Graydon Meints, for his hard work and research which would have taken years to do on my own.