If you find this useful, feel free to use the images below in your PM Mecosta tour notebook. I can send you the originals which are somewhat better resolution.
All,
I am in the process of updating the page for my geocache at Chippewa Lake (GC4GHVH) and made an interesting discovery.
The plat below is a partial taken from 1900 Plat Book of Mecosta County, MI from the UofM Digital Library. It shows the area around the south end of Chippewa Lake, including the Pere Marquette Chippewa Lake Branch (PM-JC according to Mr. Meints) labeled for the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western. This line was built by the Detroit, Lansing and Northern in 1883 (from Rodney), and taken up by the PM in 1906, once again, according to Mr. Meints.
Plat Book of Mecosta County, Michigan, P.A. Myers, Consolidated Publishing Co., 1900, UofM Digital Library
Using Google Earth, I found and plotted the main line crossing 110th Avenue (north-south rd) and 19 Mile (east-west rd), as shown on the plat map. Looking at 1955 and 1963 imagery from Historical Aerials, I discovered what I believe to be the two sides of a wye and a possible siding east of 110th Ave. I wonder how far northeast leg of the wye extended into the village (labeled Chippewa on the plat map).
Partial track layout at Chippewa Lake, sketched by A.G. Hudley, 2017, using Google Earth and Google Maps Engine
Does anybody have any railroad drawings or old photographs of this area they would like to share, especially something I could include on the cache page? I've not seen a photograph of a station or any of the mills.
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