SWS (RMNE) - Grayling on the M&NE Multi-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.

This is a multi-cache with a field puzzle and is not at the posted coordinates. To determine the location of the cache, go to the posted coordinates and answer the following questions with information there.

• N 44° 40.ABC W 084° 45.DEF
  
  
• A = First digit of year caboose was built (BUILT B-A0).
• B = Month the caboose was built (BUILT B-A0).
• C = Last digit of the caboose number plus one.
• D = First digit of the caboose number).
• E = Number of logs on the sleigh minus two.
• F = Month the caboose was INSPected (F-78).
  
  
• North Checksum: A+B+C = 17
• West Checksum: D+E+F = 13

You are looking for a soda preform.

^{Photo courtesy Crawford County Historical Museum}
M&NE Depot at Grayling looking very new.

Grayling:

The first settler in Grayling was one Michael Sloat Hartwick. When the railroad was being built, he constructed a log hotel on the west side of the tracks. The railroad allotted 40 acres for a settlement, naming it Crawford. The locals preferred the name Grayling after the species of fish they found in the Au Sable river. Ironically, it was the practice of moving logs to mills using rivers that nearly wiped out the fish. After the logging era, streams were planted with Brooke Trout which competed with the Grayling for food. Eventually the non-native species took over. In the 1980ss, the State of Michigan made a failed attempt to reintroduce Grayling to the rivers.

The village of Grayling was originally platted in 1874 by the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad when it pushed its line north toward Macinaw City. The JL&S was a predecessor of the Michigan Central Railroad.

A post office was opened on January 19^th, 1874 with John E. Corbet, postmaster. Leonard M. Simons took over that position just two weeks later. Grayling became the county seat of Crawford County in 1879, taking over from the nearby hard luck town of Pere Cheney. Grayling was incorporated as a village in 1903 and a city in 1935.

^{Charles Conn Michigan Railroad Collection, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University}
M&NE work or camp train parked apparently for a long time at Grayling

For more information about the Grayling area, visit the museum downtown in the old Michigan Central depot, right around the corner from Stage 1.

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Manistee and Northeastern Railroad Company History:

As a result of the afore mentioned meeting, articles of incorporation for The Manistee and Northeastern Rail Road Company (M&NE) were prepared January 7^th, 1887and filed in Manistee. The corporation was approved on May 1^st, 1887, by the Michigan Railroad Commission. Key players in the venture were lumber men Edward Buckley and William Douglas, and financier Charles F. Ruggles. Buckley and Douglas owned the largest sawmill operation and salt plant in Manistee and needed a cost effective way to transport logs from the forests to the mill. The pair also owned huge expanses of timber lands north and east of Manistee. The M&NE wasn't their first foray into railroading as they had previously built a small narrow gauge logging line in eastern Manistee County to haul cut logs to the Manistee River in section 25 of Dickson Township. From there, they were floated to the mills in Manistee. As lands along the rivers were timbered off, railroads replaced rivers as the primary means of transport. At first logs were the only thing hauled on the railroad but by 1888, passengers and other freight were hauled as well.

The initial capital outlay for the railroad was $600,000 with the goal of reaching Traverse City. When completed, the M&NE became one of the only common carrier railroads in Michigan that was completed entirely with private funding. The articles of incorporation were amended on January 7^th, 1882, to increase capital to $2,000,000. The name was changed to Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad Company. The corporation was amended a second time on January 30^th, 1904, as Manistee and Northeastern Railroad Company to change the number of directors on the board. It was amended for the last time at a February 24^th, 1909. At a stockholders meeting that day, a decision was made to issue $1.5 Million in bonds to be used to complete what would be known as the Manistee River Branch. This was approved at a Directors meeting that same day (note the subtle differences in the name). The railroad grew subtantially when the River Branch reached Grayling in 1910, tapping an additional three to four hundred million feet of standing timber. On June 9^th, 1919, the M&NE leased the Leelanau Transit Company, the last "growth" for the railroad. This line was mostly for passenger service and was a desperate attempt to inject some badly needed money into the company.

With the removal of the last of the timber, agriculture supplemented the freight business. Unfortunately, forest fires damaged the soil and a few short years of good yields quickly depleted what was left, making agriculture a tough business and the rail line's profits fell. Eventually, potatoes and fruit became the crops of choice. With the advent of better roads and the somewhat reliable automobiles and trucks, freight and passenger business diminished. The railroad line was clearly in financial difficulties. Unpaid employees filed a lawsuit in US District Court in 1918. Attempts were made to increase profits by deferring maintenance on the right of way and equipment. A nearly fatal blow came when the mill property, salt plant and railroad shops were destroyed by Manistee's second largest fire. The salt plant was eventually rebuilt but the timber business had come to a close. After years of operating at a loss, largely due to operating River Branch with little or no traffic, the railroad filed an application to abandon the branch on September 5^th, 1924. They subsequently abandoned the branch on July 1_st, 1925. The M&NE entered into receivership on December 16^th, 1925. It was sold for $300,000 to James Dagget and reincorporated as the Manistee & Northeastern Railway Company on September 4^th, 1926. In December, 1931, the Pere Marquette Railroad (PM) gained control of the M&NE, but continued to operate it as a seperate entitiy. On November 30^th, 1955, the M&NE was merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O). Today the only part of the M&NE still in use is the Filer City Branch within the city of Manistee.

^{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.