Adopted from Basswoodbend by KzooOtters
Town Name:
Walton Junction
Population:
On summer weekends when the RV park is full, it might reach 100.
Reason For Becoming a Lost Town:
The growth of the automobile reduced and then eliminated rail travel.
Town History:
Walton began in 1872 when one of the area’s major timber harvesters, the Stornach Lumber Company opened a store and a boarding house. The following year, the Grand Rapids and Indiana RR selected Walton as the construction headquarters and starting point of their branch line to Traverse City. The railroad opened a full fledged hotel, aptly named The Grand Rapids and Indiana House. Almost simultaneously a man named Griggs opened The Walton House and became the postmaster.
By 1880, Walton boasted of three hotels with the requisite saloons, ten stand alone saloons and a number of bordellos. The permanent population was less than 100 but since it was the only place between Traverse City and Cadillac where a tired and thirsty lumberjack could get a drink and feminine companionship, the population on the weekends would easily increase five fold. Beginning just before suppertime on Fridays, trains from the north and south would disembark their young, male, fresh scrubbed, just paid, thirsty human cargo. Respectable women ushered their children and husbands into the security of their homes and locked the doors.
Given that the visitors were for the most part young single men, as the evening wore on, drunken brawls were common, in fact they seem to be the major source of entertainment. These fights apparently never involved weapons such as guns or knives. The men would stand toe to toe and slug it out. If a man was knocked down, he was given room to get back on his feet. When one of the contestants could no longer stand, it was acceptable for the victor to "brand" him by stomping on his body with the lumberjacks steel caulked boots. The bleary eyed losers would often limp back into their camps on Sunday night having lost a tooth or two but gained the pocked marked pattern on their hide referred to as lumberjack smallpox.
Many writers have claimed that if a person were to walk into any railroad station in Michigan and ask for a ticket to Hell, they would be given one to Walton. (Personally, I think they’d wind up in Washtenaw County, but that’s another town.) Situated near the boundary line between Grand Traverse and Wexford counties, the town received law enforcement from neither. The citizens seemed to feel that it was only an issue on Friday and Saturday nights and were content to leave the matter to the bouncers and saloonkeepers.
As lumbering declined the land was opened to agriculture and the town had a brief period of further growth as stores and a couple of small industries catered to and marketed the products of the farmers. The 1905 census lists a population of 250. In 1910, the town received a third rail crossing when the Manistee and Northeastern built a short-lived line through to Grayling. The little town’s future looked bright. A Mr. Dewitt Leech dammed the small stream and created a cranberry bog just west of town that at its peak shipped 1000 tons of fruit. (A note of interest, on the night of July 10, 1898, a hard frost wiped out the entire crop.)
Henry Ford signed the town’s death warrant when he introduced the Model T. With the coming of the automobile, rail travel declined and so did the need for accommodations at the junction. Some old foundations can still be seen and a couple of the structures might be the originals but for the most part, the town is gone.
The Cemetery was "restored" in 1985. One must wonder what it looked like before then. There are numerous stray rocks on the ground but they don't seem to have been headstones.
Cache Description:
This is now a regular sized nut jar on the ground.
Notes of Interest:
This cache is part of the Michigan's Lost Towns cache series. Visit this link to see the complete list and to submit your own!!
