This cache is on the boundary of public property owned by the Village of Sheridan and private property (with permission) that is part of the tire and auto repair store to the west. Please approach from the North East, not from the auto shop parking lot.
Sheridan, Grand Trunk depot, around the turn of the century.
The cache is placed in memory of two silenced whistles at this site.
The second rail line to serve Sheridan was the Toledo, Saginaw and Muskegon Railroad. It was built in 1887-89 between Ashley and Muskegon. Rails reached Carson City in September of 1887, Greenville in November of 1887, Cedar Springs and Muskegon by the end of the year. Construction continued in 1888 for ballasting, sidings and depots. On August 1st, 1888, a lease of the TS&M to the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada was completed. A mail and express train and a mixed train (with passenger service) was operated daily between Owosso (over the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan to Ashley) and Muskegon. The line was locally known as the GT version of the Turkey Trail because it meandered like a turkey and also because it allegedly never made money.
In 1928, GTC was merged with other Michigan Grand Trunk subsidiaries into the Grand Trunk Western, itself a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway. In 1930, GTW secured trackage rights between Grand Rapids and Muskegon over the Pennsylvania Railroad (former Grand Rapids and Indiana) Muskegon Branch. Service on the Turkey Trail was reduced to way freights and mixed trains. In 1946, with heavy service operating over the PRR, the portion of the line between Greenville and Muskegon was abandoned.
Mixed train service continued leaving Durand, to Greenville and back each day until the end of 1955. On January 1st, 1956, this was reduced to a way freight turn daily. On January 11th, 1983, the last train left Greenville and the line was abandoned between Greenville and Carson City. The rails are still in place from Ashley to Carson City and were being occasionally operated from 1982 by the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay and since 2006, between Ashley and Middleton by the Great Lakes Central.
Libby, McNeill & Libby, Sheridan, Mich, 1924, prior to Carnation ownership.
The automobiles are parked along what is now M-66
Prior to early spring of 2016, a large brick structure stood to the south of the cache site. It was a Condensed Milk plant, commonly known as "The Condensery". It was a built by Libby, McNeill & Libby in the in approximately 1918. Land records show the company purchased the property in 1917. The Carnation Company purchased the plant in the late 'Thirties or early 'Forties. later owned by the Carnation Company. The facility made canned condensed milk until 1975 when the plant was closed. According to some sources, the condensery was the largest single customer on this branch of the railroad line. Trucks picked up fresh milk from local farmers in the area and delivered it to a small building on the south side of the complex. New, empty cans were unloaded from freight cars using long rake like devices and placed on a metal cage conveyor system that ran throughout the building. Canned, condensed milk was loaded into waiting freight cars on the north side of the building.
Many local people earned their living at the plant and many local farmers provided the raw material. The condensery had a whistle that blew promptly every work day at 8:00AM, 12:00 noon, 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to mark start of the work day, lunch break, end of lunch break and end of the work day. Most people thought they had heard the last of this familiar whistle when the plant closed in 1975, but that turned out to be not the case. The whistle was rescued and restored by a local businessman and can sometimes be seen and heard in the annual Memorial Day Parade.
The building stood, mostly unused and falling further into disrepair, until its demolition in February and March of 2016.
Carnation Condensary, photo by Brian Lambert © 2013.
As a young lad, I would while away much time watching the Grand Trunk crew switch cars at the Carnation plant, the elevator, and lumber yard. Once or twice, I even managed a view from the cab. I sometimes proved very helpful at getting in the way of the plant employees going about their tasks of unloading cans and boxes from and loading finished product to freight cars.
I was fortunate enough to be one of a small handful of people invited to ride the second to last eastbound train through Sheridan. The last views I got from the cab were both happy and sad, but lucky for you, I never forgot them. I still live within spitting distance of this cache and have many more memories of the railroad and places it served. These memories are why the Silent Whistles cache series was created. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Arden G. Hudley
Silent Whistles
a.k.a. ... ask someone from the Class of 1970.
Sources:
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