As GAL notes, the GR&I had two stations. One, named Lower Big Rapids, sited on the south side of Maple Street and west side of tracks, was at MP 289.9. The second, named Upper Big Rapids, site on the north side of Baldwin Street and west of tracks, was at MP 290.6. The PM (nee DL&N) crossing was at MP 290.3. aghudley’s observation about the respective locations is correct. My mileage he cites for Upper Big Rapids is incorrect and should be as I have given above. My error is found in Michigan Railroad Lines. Hudley is right that the PM (nee C&WM) depot was just south of Pine Street.
The Chicago & Michigan Lake Shore built from Muskegon to the Pine Street depot; line was completed 21 July 1873. The Detroit, Lansing & Northern built from Blanchard to the Pine Street depot; line was completed 4 July 1880. (Both dates from Aids, Gifts, Grants & Donations). The Commissioiner of Railroads confirms the crossing was put in in 1880. (Annual Report 1880). The crossing was never interlocked, so far as I can find. It appears that gates were the crossing protection.
About the two GR&I stations. An employee timetable of 1870, when the line was opened as far as Paris, shows the two B. R. stations. When Upper Big Rapids was discontinued as a passenger station is difficult to establish. The list of GR&I stations in the Michigan Official Directory and Legislative Manual for 1905-06 is the last to show two the two stations in Big Rapids. I don’t have any timetables to show when the Upper station disappeared from the passenger schedules. An employee timetable of 1920 shows Big Rapids and Upper Big Rapids. Big Rapids is shown as the manned depot with passenger train stops, and Upper Big Rapids appears only with a passing siding. The dates and types of activity of the upper station will take more research.
The story behind the two Big Rapids stations goes back to 1870 when the GR&I was built through the town. The city fathers could not agree where the GR&I station should be built. The GR&I owned a parcel or land near Baldwin Street on the east side of the Muskegon River. George W. Cass (head of the Continental Improvement Co. that was building the GR&I) said the GR&I wanted to build a car repair and machine shop on the site, and it was convenient for the town. The GR&I received a subsequent gift of land near Maple Street, farther south, for another depot site, and that pleased another faction of the city fathers. But both groups still wanted a depot on the west side of the river. Cass said the GR&I would build on the west side if the city would donate the land and pay the railroad $8,000 in cash or $10,000 in city bonds. “Outrageous,” claimed the city fathers. That line was never built. To settle things, Cass decided to build and maintain both a lower and an upper depot. The car repair shop was never built.
That Big Rapids had two stations was not unique. The GR&I had three separate stations in Grand Rapids for a time, two in Petoskey, and used three different stations in Kalamazoo. But that is another story.
GMM
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