~ TRANSPORTATION AROUND WALLOON LAKE ~
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By TRAIN and By BOAT
Photo Below: Busy docks at the Walloon Lake Boat Manufacturing Company...
Picturesque Walloon published 1911 described on page 12, THE VILLAGE:
"A quiet little hamlet surrounding the G.R. & I. station and steamboat landing, consists of three stores, a bowling, bath house, boat livery, boat factory, four hotels, two churches and post office. A beautiful spring of pure, cold water, one hundred feet above the village, has recently been tapped and piped to the business portion.
We do not boast of electric cars, paved streets and patrol wagons; we have nature's highways and byways leading through the quiet woods, or by the lake---a perfect body of water on which public or private boats may be run whither they will. No dust, no smoke, no noise---just nature's paradise."
"The first time my folks drove to Walloon, I think in the late 1920s, it took them four days. In those days, there were only terrible dirt or sand roads. You need a shovel in the car. Most people took the train to Petoskey."
AND
"My grandparents and family took an overnight through-train from central Indiana. At the Petoskey train station, they changed to what I always heard referred to as the “dummy train” which went out to Walloon Lake village, at the foot of the lake. Then they loaded all their trunks onto one of the steamer boats, such as the Tourist. It took them to the Lake Grove Hotel dock, then onto a boardwalk to their first cottage, about the 7th cottage north of the Lake Grove Hotel. After 1907, they got off at the Baer’s Den Hotel dock and again walked on a boardwalk to their newly built cottage, the 5th cottage south of the Baer’s Den Hotel. (The Baer’s Den Hotel burned down in 1925, but the Lake Grove Hotel operated into the 1960s.) In those days, the social life centered around the hotel communities. Sunday dinner was usually served and attended by many of the “cottagers” followed by visiting and games fro the kids. Once a week, the hotel would take the men to town shopping for groceries and other necessities-usually an all day trip by horse and wagon. The women had occasional tea parties for their friends, who all dressed up in their best. The ladies always had on long dresses and the little girls, even when playing, wore dresses."
~ Barbara (Ice) Smith
AND
"My grandparents and family took an overnight through-train from central Indiana. At the Petoskey train station, they changed to what I always heard referred to as the “dummy train” which went out to Walloon Lake village, at the foot of the lake. Then they loaded all their trunks onto one of the steamer boats, such as the Tourist. It took them to the Lake Grove Hotel dock, then onto a boardwalk to their first cottage, about the 7th cottage north of the Lake Grove Hotel. After 1907, they got off at the Baer’s Den Hotel dock and again walked on a boardwalk to their newly built cottage, the 5th cottage south of the Baer’s Den Hotel. (The Baer’s Den Hotel burned down in 1925, but the Lake Grove Hotel operated into the 1960s.) In those days, the social life centered around the hotel communities. Sunday dinner was usually served and attended by many of the “cottagers” followed by visiting and games fro the kids. Once a week, the hotel would take the men to town shopping for groceries and other necessities-usually an all day trip by horse and wagon. The women had occasional tea parties for their friends, who all dressed up in their best. The ladies always had on long dresses and the little girls, even when playing, wore dresses."
~ Barbara (Ice) Smith
Undated Photo Below: Now the 75 roadway leading out of Walloon Lake Village toward Boyne City...
"The bids were let for a road to Boyne Falls. It was south of Melrose stop and followed the railroad. We know it now as 131. Before this when anyone wanted to go to Boyne Falls, they had to go down the Boyne City-Springvale road to the corner of the Easton place (now the Homestead) and across to the Boyne Falls road or go into Boyne City and then out the Boyne Falls road." ~ Mildred Burns, longtime Walloon Lake resident
"To begin with we should explore the few routes there were in the very early days of reaching the Village of Talcott [now Walloon Lake] as it was first called. There were two principal roads, one from Boyne City and one from Petoskey. They each came ‘over the hills’ as the lake lay in an area surrounded by hills but still 111 feet higher than either Boyne or Petoskey. The only connection Boyne had with towns to the south was via the East Jordan & Southern, a short line with connections with the Pere Marquette Railroad which ran all the way to Chicago. The EJ&S has long since been torn up but I had a ride on it from East Jordan to Bellaire shortly before its abandonment. For several week-ends in the Fall, in expectation of abandonment the railroad had put on these excursions and Mom and I took advantage of one. We rode in a roofless railroad-built car and thoroughly enjoyed the bumpy ride. The Fall colors were magnificent as usual for that time of year and about half way to Bellaire we were stopped at a wagon crossing by a bunch of ‘masked bandits’ (High schoolers) who stopped the train and relieved us of some of our money (for band uniforms, I think). It was a fine trip and we had a lot of fun and it was unfortunate that the EJ&S had experienced financial troubles which necessitated tearing up the track.
The wagon road out of Boyne went east and then followed the valleys mostly until it ran across a swampy area where some gravel had been spread on the dirt. After climbing several hills it came out on the south shore of the lake where it turned east and followed the shore to the village on the east end of the lake. Talcott was a very small assembly of houses, not more than probably a dozen all clustered around the east end with a few farms nearby.
This road after skirting the lake connected with what has always been known as the ‘Old State Road’ which came over the hills from the north and traveled down the valley from Clarion. There was a road that ran approximately parallel to the north shore but it only ran to the start of the first hill to the west. It crossed the Old State Road in front of the Masters’ house and continued east as a rough wagon road to the GR&I [Grand Rapids & Indiana] tracks where it turned north and followed the track to Clarion and on to Petoskey. A half mile north of Clarion the wagon road veered off where it went through a swamp and it was regular corduroy, i.e. logs laid cross wise of the road and filled with dirt. A mile of this and the road crossed the track, then turned north again and followed the rails all the way to Petoskey. There was also a road on the south shore of the lake, but this was a part of the regular Boyne City road as mentioned before. It was used to serve the cottages on the south shore...
...As to the roads around the west arm I never was familiar enough with that area to know if and where they were.
All roads in Melrose township were at first under the jurisdiction of a road commissioner who was elected every spring at the annual township meeting and held that office for one year. He had the say of if and when any work was to be done on them. If you had a bad spot in your road you could go to the township supervisor or to the road commissioner himself and request a load of gravel or some other improvement be done. Then a pole wagon would be hand shoveled with gravel and dumped in the bad spot and leveled off. Once in the spring as soon as spring plowing was finished and as soon as the frost left the ground and the roads became pliable one of the local farmers who had a big strong team was hired to hitch them to the township grader and haul it over the roads, scraping the excess dirt and gravel to the center of the road. This didn’t do much to widen the already narrow path, so one spring I offered to hitch a big truck I had, a ‘Relay’ to that grader and do what I felt would be a better job. I intended to scrape the considerable excess gravel in the center to the outside, making the road that much wider, but I was turned down as 1) I was a ‘resorter’ 2) it was thought I didn’t need the money and 3) the commissioner didn’t like the way I had graded a short stretch of the road. So, I lost out and probably it was just as well. The commissioner that year was Theodore Ecker (Leo’s father) and he lived on a small farm just across the GR&I tracks and at the east end of the east and west road from the village...
...Now, I’ve gotten a long way from describing the real early day happenings, but I figured the foregoing needed to be set down. When I look back on those times it doesn’t seem possible that ALL the roads in this whole area were once all dirt or sand with just a load or so of gravel thrown on the really bad spots. We couldn’t go anywhere driving in a buggy or early car without being prepared to climb out and lend a hand pushing. Even those early day cars would often get stuck or mired, and you had to watch out for swampy places. They all had large wheels with narrow tires which latter did nothing to prevent those wheels from sinking into sand. The road to Petoskey was a caution, there being several sandy hills to be climbed where old Clayt Bixby would always have to shift his Oldsmobile into low gear. It may be difficult to imagine the atrocious condition of the roads in those days, but what a relief to face the big improvement black-top brought. And when we consider the much better quality the county is now able to give the roads besides the snow plowing in winter there is no inclination to go back to the former days."
~ James C. Whitfield, Sr.
The wagon road out of Boyne went east and then followed the valleys mostly until it ran across a swampy area where some gravel had been spread on the dirt. After climbing several hills it came out on the south shore of the lake where it turned east and followed the shore to the village on the east end of the lake. Talcott was a very small assembly of houses, not more than probably a dozen all clustered around the east end with a few farms nearby.
This road after skirting the lake connected with what has always been known as the ‘Old State Road’ which came over the hills from the north and traveled down the valley from Clarion. There was a road that ran approximately parallel to the north shore but it only ran to the start of the first hill to the west. It crossed the Old State Road in front of the Masters’ house and continued east as a rough wagon road to the GR&I [Grand Rapids & Indiana] tracks where it turned north and followed the track to Clarion and on to Petoskey. A half mile north of Clarion the wagon road veered off where it went through a swamp and it was regular corduroy, i.e. logs laid cross wise of the road and filled with dirt. A mile of this and the road crossed the track, then turned north again and followed the rails all the way to Petoskey. There was also a road on the south shore of the lake, but this was a part of the regular Boyne City road as mentioned before. It was used to serve the cottages on the south shore...
...As to the roads around the west arm I never was familiar enough with that area to know if and where they were.
All roads in Melrose township were at first under the jurisdiction of a road commissioner who was elected every spring at the annual township meeting and held that office for one year. He had the say of if and when any work was to be done on them. If you had a bad spot in your road you could go to the township supervisor or to the road commissioner himself and request a load of gravel or some other improvement be done. Then a pole wagon would be hand shoveled with gravel and dumped in the bad spot and leveled off. Once in the spring as soon as spring plowing was finished and as soon as the frost left the ground and the roads became pliable one of the local farmers who had a big strong team was hired to hitch them to the township grader and haul it over the roads, scraping the excess dirt and gravel to the center of the road. This didn’t do much to widen the already narrow path, so one spring I offered to hitch a big truck I had, a ‘Relay’ to that grader and do what I felt would be a better job. I intended to scrape the considerable excess gravel in the center to the outside, making the road that much wider, but I was turned down as 1) I was a ‘resorter’ 2) it was thought I didn’t need the money and 3) the commissioner didn’t like the way I had graded a short stretch of the road. So, I lost out and probably it was just as well. The commissioner that year was Theodore Ecker (Leo’s father) and he lived on a small farm just across the GR&I tracks and at the east end of the east and west road from the village...
...Now, I’ve gotten a long way from describing the real early day happenings, but I figured the foregoing needed to be set down. When I look back on those times it doesn’t seem possible that ALL the roads in this whole area were once all dirt or sand with just a load or so of gravel thrown on the really bad spots. We couldn’t go anywhere driving in a buggy or early car without being prepared to climb out and lend a hand pushing. Even those early day cars would often get stuck or mired, and you had to watch out for swampy places. They all had large wheels with narrow tires which latter did nothing to prevent those wheels from sinking into sand. The road to Petoskey was a caution, there being several sandy hills to be climbed where old Clayt Bixby would always have to shift his Oldsmobile into low gear. It may be difficult to imagine the atrocious condition of the roads in those days, but what a relief to face the big improvement black-top brought. And when we consider the much better quality the county is now able to give the roads besides the snow plowing in winter there is no inclination to go back to the former days."
~ James C. Whitfield, Sr.
Long Awaited Stop Light at the Walloon Lake Junction Has Arrived...
2021
2021