This cache is on the public road right of way within the settlement of Butternut near the site of the former Grand Trunk Western depot. There are houses nearby so please be discrete.
Second Butternut depot on the GTW.
Stockyards, elevator and first (right side of tracks) Butternut depot on the GTW.
The village of Butternut was a thriving community a century ago. A post office was established in 1888 and did not close until 1955. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population was 250 and the town had several stores, a saw mill, cheese factory, hotel, bank, a Congregational Church, and an elevator and stockyards. Butternut originally had the small, simple station seen right of the freight cars in the second image above. In 1912, the small depot was moved to the south side of the tracks and a larger depot, similar to the one in Sheridan, was built in its place. Times were good.
This was the birthplace of Butternut Belle, a fine lass who tamed an adventurous lad, turned sailor, known as the Lumbago Kid. They settled in a nearby village and raised a family of three lads and a fine young lass of their own. The youngest of the sons developed an interest in horses of the iron variety and an ear for the echoes of their long silenced whistles.
In 1887-89, a railroad line originally known as the Toledo, Saginaw and Muskegon, was constructed 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 (freight with passenger service) was operated daily between Owosso (over the Ann Arbor Railroad to Ashley) and Muskegon. The line was known as 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 single 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.
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