Grayling, MI: 1882 Preserved/NYC/Michigan Central Depot

(Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2015

Clare Unikon Railroad Depot posted

GRAYLING MICHIGAN…FINAL (FOR NOW) STOP ON THE TRAIN DEPOT STOPS TOUR NEAR THE CLARE UNION DEPOT. This two story New York Central  System structure highlights the Crawford County Historical Society’s site in downtown Grayling. 

Built in 1882 at 97 E. Michigan, the building once served 12 passenger trains daily and their crews. Crews were housed in the second floor which was even equipped with a kitchen! A roundhouse stood on the other side of at least 6 sets of tracks, but it burned down in the late 1930s and was never rebuilt.

Inside the depot, the historical society has numerous displays, not just on the railroad days in Grayling, but logging, early settlers, and other aspects of life in Crawford County. Behind the station, an impressive collection of buildings (and a caboose) sits, including a trapper’s cabin, a fire station, a barn, and a military display. The museum and its grounds will reopen after Memorial Day 2024, and remain open through September, tentatively Tuesday through Saturday from 10-4.

On a personal note, if my dad was still alive, I could ask him if this is the station at which he disembarked while in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s… He did tell me, however, that he had his first beer at SPIKE’S KEG O NAILS a few blocks from here while serving with the National Guard in Grayling before enlisting in the US Army for WWII

Robert Warrick shared

Since the roundhouse burned down in the 1930s, it doesn't show up on this map.

1951 Grayling Quad @ 24,000

A USGS map labels the railroad as Lake State. I could not find any grain elevators. Northern Michigan probably has forest products and tourists, but not grain farming.