DaveO wrote:
And so Pixl, I'm curious, how did you discover this almost obscure line? It's not on the Sanborn Maps I viewed. The USGS online topos aren't old enough to show that line. Historic Mapworks doesn't seem to have any maps with it showing.
Dave, you are correct on the location. Nice work.
I read about it in the Traverse City Library some years ago and just thought about it again recently. The library moved to a new bulding and they discontinued the "Michigan Room" making it harder to find this stuff. But here is a clip from an article I found. It says it was the Cobbs and Mitchell logging railroad that built the first bridge across that area, later they filled it in to become a causeway. The railroad only used it a year or so. Later the crossing was converted to a highway. Here is the recent article I found.
Rails help build highway
One of the shortest term railroads in northern Michigan was the railroad that ran from Cadillac’s gravel pit to Lake Mitchell.
In 1891 Cobbs and Mitchell’s railroad to the southeast of Cadillac had completed its job of bringing logs from that area to the company’s mills in Cadillac. As the rails of the Cobbs and Mitchell logging railroad were taken up, they were laid along the south shore of Lake Cadillac as work progressed on a new roadway. The year before, a road had been built along the north side of Lake Cadillac from “Harristown” to the canal between the lakes and in 1891 a new road from Wood St. (now S. Mitchell) to Lake Mitchell was constructed. The Cobbs and Mitchell rails were extended from the gravel pit, near Maple Hill cemetery, southwestward to what was known as Hobart Highway and GR 4 I RR intersection. This would be near where present Sunnyside Drive crosses the Penn-Central railroad tracks. From there the rails hauled gravel westward along the south side of Lake Cadillac to the bay where they were extended over a long bridge. The roadway then joined at the canal with the 1890 roadway. Across the bay a bridge 1100 feet long was constructed to carry the new road as
well as the railroad during construction. The bridge rested on 200 cedar piles and contained 100,000 feet of hemlock lumber and timbers. The roadway was 16 feet wide and had substantial railings. The greatest depth of water at the bridge in 1891 was 12 feet. The bridge was later replaced in more modern days with a stone, iron furnace slag and dirt causeway topped with concrete paving. It is now used by highways M-115 and M-55. Old records do not indicate what was done with the rails when the roadway was completed or the exact date when the rails were removed but it is believed it was at the end of 1891 or early in 1892, giving the railroad about one year of life.
