PENTWATER STORIES

The railroad and depot

To the village of Pentwater, the coming of the Grand Rapids and Lakeshore Railroad spur in 1872 was the crucial link to new freight markets, passenger travel, and postal delivery. After the Civil War, veterans settled their families in the village, a flourishing lumber town. Before the railroads, freight and passengers traveled by boat or via the Grand Haven stagecoach route between Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, and the Milwaukee road. It was a 300-mile Michigan System that brought passengers from Detroit to Kalamazoo and Grand Haven up to Grand Rapids and then northward. The road culminated in a scenic stretch on the lake coast, wonderful in fine weather, but in the winter, passengers faced fierce winds, biting sleet, snow, sand, and cold.

By the early 1870s, the price of lumber skyrocketed because of the Chicago fire, and that city’s desperate need for lumber to rebuild. Lumber sales brought prosperity to Pentwater and the growth in population, manufacturing and commerce exacerbated the need for rail transportation. Over $50,000 was raised (subscribed) by private individuals and despite the competitive sprint between Pentwater and Hart, rail service to Pentwater won out when the Grand Rapids and Lakeshore Railroad signed contracts to complete the tracks to Pentwater by July 1, 1871. By May 22, 1869, the Chicago Tribune advertised for 50 men to work the rails at Lansing, Ionia, & Pentwater. One of the men hired to lay the rails was Charles Kilpatrick of Mason County, a pioneer railroad man born in Ireland and a Michigan resident by 1864. He laid the rails from New Buffalo to Pentwater. In 1871, the East Shore News reported that 300 men were at work on the rails between Montague and Pentwater. The tracks reached Pentwater and were finished on February 22, 1872. The Grand Rapids and Lakeshore Railroad trains began running from Montague to Pentwater on February 26 and Charles Kilpatrick fired the first locomotive entering Pentwater..

Pentwater became the terminus of the railroad. The tracks ended at the Depot on the south side of the channel where the cable ferry transported passengers and freight into the village on the north side of the lake. Train passengers and freight disembarked at the Train Depot on the south side of Pentwater Lake and caught the ferry consisting of a wooden scow and a wire cable stretched across the channel used to manually pull the ferry across to the north side of the lake. A wagon with a team of horses would meet the ferry to convey passengers and baggage to their next destination. One of the early drivers was Civil War veteran, Captain Martin Perkins who drove the “bus,” consisting of a wagon and horses. Passengers still had to use the stagecoach or some other personal conveyance to reach Ludington.

In January of 1881, the Grand Rapids and Lakeshore Railroad was taken over by the Chicago and West Michigan Railroad. In December of 1899, the Chicago and West Michigan railroad became the Pere Marquette railroad. At that time the main line was New Buffalo to Pentwater and the branch line was from Holland to Grand Rapids. When George C. Kimball took over the management of the railroad, he made New Buffalo to Grand Rapids the main line and the Holland to Pentwater division a branch line. When the railroad finally constructed a spur from Mears to Hart, that route influenced the choice of Hart as the new seat of the county government, instead of Pentwater, the first settlement in Oceana County.

Railroad service lasted over fifty years. In its heyday, two passenger trains made the daily trip along with heavy freight shipments. By the early 1900s, the summer tourist and resort business added new routes to the regular scheduled train service. Daily seasonal interurban excursion trips left Chicago and Grand Rapids for Muskegon, where travelers picked up the railroad spur to Pentwater. On the return trip, they left Pentwater at 5:30 pm, reached Muskegon at 7:30 pm, and stopped in Grand Rapids by 8 pm. Other excursion trips had destinations of Traverse City, Bayview/Petoskey, and Frankfort. In Pentwater, travelers stayed in hotels like the Verbeck Tavern.

A little criminal activity at the Depot included the October 5, 1905 burglary when thieves sawed a panel out of the Pentwater Train Depot door and broke into the safe, stealing $5.00. The identity of the bunglers remained a mystery.

During 1909, three trains traveled daily between Holland, Grand Haven, Muskegon, and Pentwater. The routes were more frequent during the summer including a seasonal Sunday train that left Chicago's Union Station for the Lakeshore communities. A ticket from St. Joe (St. Joseph) to Pentwater cost $1.00 for the fast train and $.75 to Whitehall and Muskegon or Ottawa Beach 50 cents. In 1912, the Interurban railway from Grand Rapids took fishermen north to Highland Park, Grand Haven, the Fruitport Pavilion on Sundays for the speckled bass fishing, or to Lake Michigan Park in Muskegon (today's Pere Marquette Park). Since it left at 5 am, the railroad urged passengers to buy their tickets on Saturday night. From Muskegon, passengers could switch to the train north to Pentwater. In reverse, the Pere Marquette Train departed from Pentwater and connected with the Muskegon Interurban for the trip back to Grand Rapids.

Weather mishaps often affected train travel. In August 1910, washouts and lightning caused train stoppages at Whitehall. Snow storms proved to be a problem some years. On January 13, 1920, a blizzard delayed the trains with big drifts across the railroad right of way. Another massive blizzard the next month, in February 1920, canceled trains north of Muskegon when the rail crossings were entirely blocked by snow. Again, in March 1920, the Pentwater, Muskegon, White Cloud, and Big Rapids trains were out of commission. Despite the plows being out, ice on the track and the extreme cold created multiple challenges. A call went out to volunteers to help open the right of way to Pentwater.

In 1913, there was some hope that the interurban would be extended to Pentwater. Newspapers described a proposed but unrealized Pentwater Electric way line (Muskegon to Manistee) designed for uninterrupted interurban travel from Grand Rapids. In 1915, a midday summer train ran from Muskegon through to Pentwater. The last train of the day, the #108 train to Pentwater varied seasonally between a 8:50 and 7:50 pm departure time, and passengers could travel by sleeper car straight through from Pentwater to Chicago. Additional resort runs continued in the early 1920s between Chicago and Pentwater, Grand Rapids, Bay View and Frankfort, even though automobile travel was becoming more popular. Local roads were improved and connected to create the West Michigan Pike, the popular new route to resorts along the lakeshore.

Around 1926, the old Pentwater ferry was replaced by the addition of a swing bridge across the channel. The Pere Marquette Company gave the village the swing bridge formerly used in Elk Rapids. Finally, by the early 1930s, automobiles and trucks took the place of trains for passenger and freight transportation and the scheduled runs to Pentwater were only two or three times per week as needed. By 1933, rail service had disappeared.

On February 1933, Margaret McKee wrote in a newspaper column about the end of the Pentwater train service. She recalled her mother saying that back in 1872, she was on her way to the milk house with a pan of milk when the "shrill, shrieking sound of a whistle of that first train entering Pentwater came out of the blue” causing her to spill the milk. McKee’s mother had first traveled to Pentwater by stage in 1863. After the end of Pere Marquette rail service to Pentwater, the railroad line was owned by the Chesapeake & Ohio from 1947 until it was abandoned in the 1980s. Something makes me wish that little depot was still there. The substantial period-style Station Master’s house did survive. Designed in the gable and wing-style with a small front porch, the house was moved from the old depot site down the hill from Chester Street on this lovely protected site, nestled into the side of a Lake Michigan dune.

Selected Sources:

“First to Fire Engine into Pentwater Dies,” Grand Rapids, June 1, 1929.

“In Grip of Storm,” Grand Rapids Press, 3/15/1912.

“Lookback: Railroad linking Oceana County was like Internet before 'net existed,” by Dave LeMeiux, M-Live, 3/24/2014.

“Our Oceana History: Railraods in Oceana Part 1,” by Al Chapman, Oceana’s Herald Journal, 3/8/2021.

“Stage Still Busy,” Grand Rapids Press 12/09/1909.

Note: Pulling together these historical vignettes requires piecing together the facts from many sources. These sources are only a fraction of the short articles and vignettes using in compiling the stories.