SWS (RMNE) - Sigma 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.

IMPORTANT: The bridge over the North Branch of the Manistee River on Kniss Road east of this cache site has been permenantly blocked. Kniss road is not maintained, especially in the winter.

You are looking for a soda preform on the old Sands and later M&NE spur to Kniss Lake. Park at Kniss road and walk to the cache. Don't block Kniss road. It is used by property owners east of here.

^{Charles Conn Michigan Railroad Collection, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.}
The depot at Sigma on the M&NE. Masonry construction hinted at long use, but that was not the case.

Sigma:

Sigma was carved out of the woods with the coming of the railroad in 1909. Sigma received a post office on May 13^th, 1914, with William T. Kirkby as postmaster. The post office lasted until 1929.

^{Charles Conn Michigan Railroad Collection, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.}
Pere Marquette #425 at the Sigma Depot.

Other logging interests were in close proximity to Sigma. By 1897, twelve years before the M&NE arrived on the scene, the Louis Sands Salt and Lumber Railroad built a narrow gauge line from Sharon on the Manistee River, north and north-east to Starvation Lake, in the far north of Kalkaska County. Sands harvested the pine in the region. This line is believed to have been removed before 1909 as the M&NE used a mile and a half of the old Sands grade to reach Sigma from the south. The M&NE also apparently used a portion of the Sands grade to reach Kniss Lake a mile north of Sigma. Around 1912 the Stearns Salt and Lumber Company built a short branch, often referred to as the Pere Marquette Stearns Branch, from a point on the PM north of Spencer, north-east to Grass Lake, near Manistee Lake, east of Kalkaska. Stearns was interested in harvesting the hardwoods. It built a short connecter to the the old Sands Grade a half mile north of Sigma, and established a camp on the east end of Kniss Lake. Stearns made use of a good portion of the old Sands grade to the north-east. PM trains occasionally made their way to Sigma over the Stearns Branch, as evidenced by the photo of the locomotive above. Stearns was believed to have evacuated the area by 1918 as that was when the PM branch (former Grand Rapids, Kalkaska and Southeastern between Kalkaska and Spencer was removed.

^{Imagery by Google Earth and Google Maps Engine annotated by AGHudley - 2018}
Aerial imagery of Sigma showing the various logging lines that once served the area

The imagery above shows the M&NE grade (blue) approaching from the south, sharing the grade with the earlier Louis Sands Salt and Lumber Railroad in brown, curving and exiting east toward Grayling. The M&NE also served Stearns Camp near Kniss Lake. The Stearns Salt & Lumber Co. Railroad, later part of the Pere Marquette, in yellow, approached from the northwest. It was a short branch off a longer branch of the former Grand Rapids, Kalkaska and Southeastern (also PM).

Unlike many lumber towns, Sigma managed to survive as a settlement, and still has a collection of houses, although it has long since stopped being a village.

A novel, The Haunting of Sigma, A Dogman Legend, by Frank Holes Jr., was published in 2008, and has been featured on The History Channel's Monster Quest.

^{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
• 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.