SWS (RMNE) - Walton on the M&NE 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 on the grade, in a cut, at the location of the north-east switch for the M&NE wye used for turning train engines. If you look hard, you can see the wye leg arcing toward M-113, nearly touching US131 beyond the traffic light.

^{Photo courtesy of the Manistee County Historical Museum.}
Loding gravel the hard way at the M&NE Interchange with the GR&I, looking north.

Walton:

The town of Walton was created to house construction crews for the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad branch line to Traverse City in 1871. The GR&I called the town Walton Junction because of the junction with this popular branch. Years after the GR&I put Walton on the map, the Manistee and Northeastern constructed its Manistee River Branch from Kaleva to Grayling. The line reached Walton (and on to Sigma) in 1909 and was completed to Grayling in 1910. There was an interchange at Walton with the GR&I in the form of a wye north-east of the underpass. M&NE trains would use the wye to reach the GR&I station for passenger service. The M&NE passed under the GR&I rather than at grade level. When the underpass was built, the GR&I moved its own wye to the Traverse City branch a little further north.

^{Map courtesy of of the US Geological Survey, 1985 vintage, with markups.}
Topo map marked up with railroads identified

^{Photo courtesy of Mike Hankwitz collection, from C. Bridson.}
The M&NE/GR&I under/overpass, looking west.

The M&NE grade passed through Walton southwest to northeast, crossing the north tip of the cranberry bog, then passing under the GR&I. The grade and location of the underpass is shown on the map above. Please do not try to walk to the site of the underpass as it is on private property. Walking the existing railroad tracks is both trespassing and dangerous.

^{Charles Conn Michigan Railroad Collection, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.}
Grandma Wiseman's rolling bordello at the M&NE-GR&I interchange in Walton. GR&I tracks are in foreground.

A very complete (except for no mention of the M&NE) and truly interesting description of the town can be read on the page for the nearby MLT cache GCJ6X3: Walton Junction.

^{Map by A.G.Hudley © 2018 using Google Earth and Google Maps Engine.}
M&NE River Branch, built 1903-1910, abandoned 1925.

M&NE River Branch:

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

The River Branch, which ran up the Manistee River valley to Grayling, was actually 7 miles longer than the main line between Manistee and Traverse City. The branch started 1.7 miles northeast of Manistee Junction, later the town of Kaleva. Mileage charts show it 1.4 miles from the Kaleva depot suggesting that the depot site may have changed.

Some sources date the beginning of the River Branch to 1895 when a mile and a half long spur was laid from a point 1.3 to 1.7 miles northeast Manistee Junction, in an easterly or southeasterly direction. At least one source believes this line was extended south east to the north end of the former Buckley & Douglas narrow gauge line. After considerable study, it is my belief that such a connection was made from Maple Grove, another 1.2 miles northeast of Kaleva, and was a branch known as the Manistee River Branch, reaching to the northern end of the territory once served by the narrow gauge Buckley & Douglas Railroad, and that branch lasted from 1895 to 1902.

In 1903 construction began on the River Branch itself, possibly utilizing part of the an original spur here. Thirteen miles of new track was laid to a point on the Ann Arbor Railroad called Claggetts. The M&NE then leased the mile long AA spur to Glengarry. In 1905 the branch was extended another seven miles to Buckley. Two more miles were added in 1907. Up to this time, the M&NE had been financed completely with private funds. In 1909 the stockholders agreed to issue $1.5 million to extend the River Branch. The line was extended thirty-six miles to just north of Sigma. The branch was completed to Grayling on July 3^rd, 1910, where it connected with the Michigan Central Railroad. The first train rain on the Fourth of July as an excursion from Grayling to Manistee. This train utilized every available passenger car and even used some freight cars with benches added temporarily. From then on, two trains each way between Manistee and Grayling, every day but Sunday.

The lifespan of the River Branch was not near as long as the owners anticipated. Dwindling forest resources, poor agriculture and a 1920 fire that destroyed the sawmill in Manistee all contributed to a decision to abandon the branch. An application to abandon the River Branch was filed on September 5^th, 1924 and granted on July 1^st, 1925.

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.
• New atlas and directory of Grand Traverse County, Michigan, S.E. Pond & Co., 1895, UofM Digital Library
• Standard atlas of Grand Traverse County, Michigan , G.A. Ogle & Co., 1908, UofM Digital Library
• Traverse Area District Library
• Annual Report of the Commissioner of Railroads of the State of Michigan, for years 1889-1906, Google Books
• Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 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.