Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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Crow T Robot
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Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

Unread post by Crow T Robot »

Anyone know where this might have been taken? Best guess is the picture was taken in the early 70's.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16977396@ ... hotostream
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=24021
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Jim_c
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

Unread post by Jim_c »

Crow T Robot wrote:Anyone know where this might have been taken? Best guess is the picture was taken in the early 70's.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16977396@ ... hotostream

Maybe Petoskey? There's a similar looking object in the park along the old railroad grade. Close to the shore of the bay.
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Standard Railfan
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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I have searched far and wide trying to identify this location. Petoskey doesn’t seem likely owing to the small size of the lake in the background and the apparent height of the site above the water.

The terrain and vegetation suggests Northern Michigan, but no site seems obvious There are surprisingly few places where the GR&I line ran close to a surface water body of any size.

Two places I found seem to be possible fits but no conclusive evidence has come to light.

First is Fife Lake but I have not found a record of a water tank ever existing there. I have spent a fair amount of time in Fife Lake and I never saw nor heard of the commemorative marker there

Second is Rome City, Indiana. The is a very similar shaped pipe of rock just Northeast of the intersection of Front and Kelly Streets but the angle seems wrong.

This is perplexing. :?

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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

Unread post by Jim_c »

The reason I came up with Petoskey, or Bay View is because there is a similar structure, which has probably been reconstructed using original materials, next to the old rail bed in Bay View. It seems hard to accurately discern height from these 2D images and I haven't been up that way in years to remember if there is any kind of bluff along there. We would be looking across Little Traverse Bay. The only other likely candidate was Round Lake, east of Petoskey where there appears to be a public access site. There is a lake near Nottawa, north of Sturgis which could be a possibility, but I don't recall that much of a bluff. I even considered that it could be Lake Charlevoix with the PM misidentified as the GR&I. I also looked at Indiana quite a bit until I saw the caption on the photo which specified Michigan.
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Atkinson_Railroad
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

Unread post by Atkinson_Railroad »

I've been sitting on the fence with this thread also curious about the location.
One approach I made was googling "roadside" park at Google Maps and found one park adjacent to the right-of-way... but no lake.

The terrain certainly looks like the location is somewhere between Cadillac, and Mackinaw City.
The old line skirts Paradise Lake with a roadway next to it Yet that area appears to be too developed even by the 1970's.
The picnic table certainly has that '70s signature style to it, so I agree the photo is likely from that time.

The sign posted at the location looks like a style one would find installed at a county park, and not necessarily a state rest stop.

There are not a lot of map choices showing the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad alignment.

One approach I've considered using to narrow down possible locations is to
systematically trace the GR&I route using the USGS Quad maps at the State of Michigan web site.

https://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-1 ... --,00.html

Scroll down the above page to ELEVATION to find the older USGS maps that would show the railroad route quite accurately.

It would be a labor intensive effort but likely reveal some good possibilities.

Some additional observations...
The photo appears to be taken on "high ground" as mentioned by Jim_c with the lake shown in the background being quite lower in elevation than the railroad route.
The sunlight shadows also provide clues as to the general direction the camera was pointed for the shot depending on whether it was taken in the morning,
or more toward a late afternoon. My vague guess at this point in the search is the location is somewhere north of Petoskey. (Could be totally wrong .)

Also, the sign reads as though it was a "stop" for water which makes me think it would be set in a more rural setting than nestled in a town or city limits.

Great mystery. Whoever pins down the location, let us know.

John

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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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If someone has a GR&I employee timetable, it should show water stop locations.

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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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DaveO wrote:If someone has a GR&I employee timetable, it should show water stop locations.
I just went through a Pennsylvania timetable from 1954. It doesn't show water stations?!

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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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I can rule out Indiana we never went there on trips. It was taken early to mid 70's. We took trips mainly to Northern Lower and the UP of Michigan. We seem to gravitate to the Petoskey area or Mackinaw. A best guess maybe a roadside park along US131 or the shoreline drive US31? The picture attached was taken in the same area atleast it was in the same group of slides. The sign in the background reads Antiques Museum.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16977396@ ... ateposted/
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=24021
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Michael
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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The rails were removed by the 1970's from the area in question is that correct?
Do you know what the orientation of the tracks would have been in the photo?

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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

Unread post by Crow T Robot »

Michael wrote:The rails were removed by the 1970's from the area in question is that correct?
Do you know what the orientation of the tracks would have been in the photo?

I would say long before the 70's but I honestly don't know. I would be guessing at a north / south orientation. I tend to agree with the other comments that Lake Michigan is in the background of the first picture.
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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Wondering if this was on the line to Harbor Springs, possibly in the State Park. The topo maps show the line running on a bit of a bluff most of the way from Petoskey to Harbor Springs. I haven't yet found a good map of the area with roadside parks. Still looking.
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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My first thought looking at the picture was the north side of spring lake, next to fife lake. The state forrest campground is right there, and the elevation is close. The lake in the picture looks bigger, but that could just be the picture. I have walked the tracks there but I don't remember seeing anything like that.

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Standard Railfan
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

Unread post by Standard Railfan »

Jim_c wrote:Wondering if this was on the line to Harbor Springs, possibly in the State Park. The topo maps show the line running on a bit of a bluff most of the way from Petoskey to Harbor Springs. I haven't yet found a good map of the area with roadside parks. Still looking.
I don’t think this is along the Harbor Springs branch. The apparent elevation is too far above the water and any view across Little Traverse Bay is a much longer distance than the photo indicates.

I have walked the trail on the GR&I ROW along the south side of Little Traverse Bay several times. The line is on a bit of a bluff on the south side but the former Harbor Springs branch dropped down to with 6-8 feet of the water along the bay. The east and northeast shoreline of the bay is a narrow dune line with basically a tree filled wetland beyond. The higher ground is to the east

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Michael
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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I'm of the opinion that it is an inland lake because of the seemingly short distance across the water, the lack of boats, beaches or any buildings.
Also, weren't the tracks still in places in most of the Little Traverse Bay area in 1975?

There are not many possibilities though for inland lakes but one wild guess I had was Walloon Lake which had a short branch off the main until 1930
Off 131 in this location. https://goo.gl/maps/NvgYDTcCGTz which actually has a rock pile off the old ROW and just to the north there is a small gravel semi circle that looks like the one in Crow T Robots second photo although the buildings across the street are all gone now.
It is a about 2500 feet down to the lake from this location but aerials from the 1955 at least showed much fewer trees so possibly a clearing.

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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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I am also leaning toward an inland lake because of the raft. Maybe there are plenty of those on Little Traverse Bay, I don't remember. Is there any evidence that the tracks are actually gone? What about the line that used to run past Lake City. Its been gone more than a couple years.
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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Any idea if the tracks went up to Petosky? Did the tracks run next to the road 31 or 131 north or any other northbound road? Is there a good map of the railroad my search got me a real general not very detailed map.
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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Crow T Robot wrote:Any idea if the tracks went up to Petosky? Did the tracks run next to the road 31 or 131 north or any other northbound road? Is there a good map of the railroad my search got me a real general not very detailed map.
If you look at Google maps or Google Earth you can see where the rail bed went through town. If you follow it toward the lake from Pennsylvania Park it will curve and parallel US-31 on the south. As it enters Bay View it crosses US-31 and runs between US-31 and the lake. The Little Traverse Wheelway joins the rail bed there. It appears to have run on a bluff.
Too bad they didn't rail bank that.
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Crow T Robot
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

Unread post by Crow T Robot »

Jim_c wrote:
Crow T Robot wrote:Anyone know where this might have been taken? Best guess is the picture was taken in the early 70's.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16977396@ ... hotostream

Maybe Petoskey? There's a similar looking object in the park along the old railroad grade. Close to the shore of the bay.
I'm looking over Petoskey now but not seeing a roadside park as of yet is it north / south of town?
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

Unread post by Jim_c »

A lot will have changed since the 1970s. Like a former roadside park being developed by the local association into a recreational facility. Maybe someone can remember if the tennis courts were there then, but I'm guessing not.

I’m wondering if the picture was taken from near here, obviously before the tennis courts. Notice the background.
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3859639 ... 312!8i6656

The ground is high enough. In street view, the buildings behind the tennis courts are only partially visible, and that is with the use of an elevated camera. In the photo it looks like some buildings across the water. I can see them just to the left of the center utility pole.

The structure to which I refer is here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3852595 ... 312!8i6656

Conjecturing here, but I wonder if the stones used to build the fountain or whatever it is are the same ones in your photo. Moved and reconstructed in an attempt to preserve history. I can't read the inscription from street view.

The area I am referencing is here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3858248 ... a=!3m1!1e3
Last edited by Jim_c on Sat Mar 02, 2019 6:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Michael
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Re: Found this picture/slide Looking for info on location

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Here is a close up aerial of the area you referenced Jim from 1975
Image

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