Edmore, MI: Pere Marquette Depot and Junction Tower

Depot: (Satellite, it was L-shaped in the southwest corner of the junction)

Train Order Shack: (Satellite, McDonalds now uses that land)

Three of the 30 images posted by Maxwell Crosby with the comment:

Ghosts of Prosperity

Edmore, trains nevermore

It’s been a while since I’ve done another one of my little historical writings where I talk about a place of interest that has a railroad connection that I find particularly fascinating. Tonight I am gonna discuss a place that I have wanted to do a piece on for quite some time, and only have some recent findings and semi frequent visits to the location due to my job have really spurred my interest in this once bustling center of railroad activity. It absolutely boggles my mind that a location once bustling with railroad activity and an important link in the development of Central Michigan has essentially zero commemoration of the very resource that so many places thrive on. Many towns have lost their railroads in Michigan over the years, some with junctions. Many have continued to honor the legacy that came with these era’s in their history. Places such as Thompsonville have its Diamond and caboose on display while Reed City replicated its unique depot and incorporated the Diamond into the rail trail system. While these equally sized and smaller towns take great pride in their once bustling past times, Edmore has not. It seems as though the town has tried to move on and forget, yet it’s so easy to look at history right out in the open in plain sight, so easy to see and so easy to find.

In order to learn about Edmore’s story we must

go back to when it all began. Real estate man Edwin B. Moore plotted the location for what was to be the Village of Edmore in 1878 (a combination of his name). Situated in the far Northeast corner of Montcalm County, Edmore was in a prime position for success. Always on the smaller side of the spectrum, Edmore in terms of size and population is about the same now as it was during its heyday. However despite all of these things, Edmore was known for basically one thing; being a railroad junction that connected various railroads that would later call under the control of the Pere Marquette. At the location where the Diamond once lay, an iconic “L” shaped depot once stood in the SW corner as a silent sentinel that not only hosted the many passenger trains of its day, but also the trainmaster for the area on the second floor of the structure. The Diamond was guarded by manual train order signals that were controlled by this train master. Connector tracks that formed a “Wye” were located in the NE and SE corners of the junction, the latter later becoming part of the mainline later on. During its peak years a water tower and coaling tower also stood in Edmore, demonstrating its importance as a service stop in the area for trains. A small four track yard sprung up for staging just east of the junction on the edge of Edmore village limits. It was in some form of use until the very end.

While most towns either sprung up along existing lines or petitioned for the railroad to build to them, Edmore was in the right place at the right time by having not one but two railroads coming to town within a year of its incorporation. The first railroad came into town from the south and was the Ionia, Stanton and Northern Railroad. The line began at Stanton Junction (later known as Haynor), just north of Ionia and proceeded through towns such as Fenwick, Sheridan and Stanton in 1872. In 1878, the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad took over the ailing IS&N and extended the line from Stanton, through McBride to Edmore in 1878. From there the DL&N line was extended north and west to Wyman, Blanchard, Millbrook, Remus, Mecosta, Rodney and Big Rapids where it connected with the Grand Rapids and Indiana and Chicago and West Michigan Railroads. Not leaving any stone unturned in the area, the DL&N continued to expand and built branches from Rodney to Chippewa Lake in 1883, Remus to Weidman in 1893, and from Mecosta to Barryton, also in 1893. This network would create a sort of “Iron Spiderweb” all throughout Central West Michigan. In an era before cars and well established roads existed, the DL&N was the main connecting artery to the rest of the country for all of these towns, and proved its worth during this short window of dominance. 

A second rail line approached from the east and by 1873, the Saginaw Valley and St. Louis Railroad built from Saginaw to St Louis. Rail construction commenced at a feverish pace in 1875 when the Saginaw and Grand Rapids Railroad connected St. Louis and Alma. Also in 1875, the Chicago, Saginaw and Canada Railroad built the line between St. Louis, Alma, Elwell, Riverdale, Vestaburg and Cedar Lake. In 1878, the CS&C, in receivership, extended the line from Cedar Lake to Edmore where it connected with the DL&N. In 1879, the CS&C extended the line through Six Lakes to Lakeview. In 1883 the CS&C (later reorganized as the Saginaw and Western) extended the line through Amble to Howard City where it connected with the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad and another D&LN line through Greenville to Ionia. In 1897, the S&W, the S&GR and DL&N were reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western. In 1899-1900, the DGR&W merged with several other large Michigan based companies that would create the famed Pere Marquette Railroad. The peak of trains in Edmore however would be short lived. By 1918 however there would be at least a dozen numbered passenger trains calling on Edmore, 6 in each direction respectively. This did not include freights.

In 1901, The PM built a connecting line from Greenville through Sidney to Stanton. This line shortened travel to the city of Grand Rapids, however by doing so it made the old IS&N, from Haynor to Stanton, redundant. It was abandoned by the PM in 1933, one of the first major casualties in the area. More highways, trucks and personal cars reduced the area's reliance on the railroads, and as time went on the Pere Marquette’s “Iron Spiderweb” began to loose its grip on the area and the Diamond at Edmore saw less and less importance to the overall footprint of the Pere Marquette. The line between Greenville and Ionia was abandoned in 1942 and torn up for World War 2 scrap drives. Other low volume PM lines included in the “Iron Spiderweb” met a similar fate during this time; including the neighboring line between Greenville and Howard City abandoned the following year. Also abandoned in 1943 was the line between Lakeview and Howard City, effectively killing the Village of Amble. The line between Big Rapids and Remus, including the Blanchard Branch soon followed in 1943. The Weidman branch was pulled in 1944. By doing so the junction at Edmore was reduced from 4 through routes to just 2; west and north of the Diamond were demoted to branch line status. The PM became part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in 1947 with a revolutionary merger that officially ushered in the “Merger Era” that would dominate railroads for the next 50 years. What remained of this line was became a part of the C&O’s Grand Rapids Division.

While the 50’s and 60’s were otherwise devoid of major changes to Edmore, the slow and steady demise of this once important junction continued. The C&O abandoned the line between Lakeview and Edmore in 1973, the last customer being the Six Lakes Grain Elevator which still stands today. Continuing to remove long stub ended lines, the line between Remus and Edmore was removed in 1981, once again the lone customer being the elevator in Remus (agriculture was and still is one of the big commodities in the area). Despite talks of preservation, the Diamond and iconic depot were also victims of “progress” in the 1980’s. Despite this, rails lasted long enough to see one more major rail company in Edmore with the formation of CSX Transportation in 1987, but this was not to last. Controversy even surrounded the last remaining stretch of rail line in the area in its final years. With the desire of the C&O to abandon its northern Michigan trackage, tactics to purposely destroy service integrity along the route and discourage the few remaining customers were enacted by the C&O and finally CSX to make a case to the FRA to show the supposed “lack of customers” along the remaining route. Despite pleas to the FRA from these customers, some cars took as long as 3 months to be delivered and nothing changed for the better. Edmore’s last railroad was pulled off life support when the remaining line between Greenville to Elwell via Edmore was ripped up in 1988, ending 110 years of railroading in Edmore. The remains of these lines soon followed suit. The line from Alma to Elwell was abandoned in 2003. The line was removed between Greenville and Elmdale in 2006, minus a small portion from Malta to Lowell still in use today. As of this writing, no active rail remains in the whole area of Montcalm County (Rail to Carson City is officially OOS).

Today all that remains is the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail which occupies the ROW coming into town from the South out of Greenville and to the East of town to Alma, but neither of these use the former junction site as a trailhead due to development. Resale of former Railroad Property in recent years has seen the former location of the junction nearly wiped off the map, or made it nearly impossible to get similar angles of in the modern day and age.

There are no memorials, no monuments, no tributes, no commemorative plaques to mark the site of Edmore Junction. All that remains are pictures, recollections and memories of people current and past that can speak on behalf of the once proud depot and junction in the now sleepy settlement of Edmore.

Check out the accompanying photos to see how things were, and what they have come to today.

Maxwell Crosby shared

1
Two PM trains meet at the depot, most likely passengers transferring from one train to another. From what I can gather this was an eastbound coming from Howard City running to Alma.

2
What I presume is a northbound train stopped at the junction with an eastward facing photo, showing the water tower.

c
This old train order shanty stood just east of the former Diamond. Not sure when it was built but it obviously replaced the office in the former depot. Note the water tower in the background, visible in most of the eastward facing photos I take, this however is looking west. That house on the left still stands Today. This is where the McDonald’s now stands.

1964 Edmore Quad @ 24,000