Exploring Shiawassee County Michigan (1)

…continuing with the family visit portion of our late summer road trip to Michigan and beyond.

The morning after our family get together with Nadine, Sherman, ‘wee’ Nathan and Lulu.  I wandered into Nathan and Janice’s cozy living room and found the king of the castle ‘chilling’ in his chair with a cup of coffee.  So I grabbed a cup and sat in the chair on the other side of the fireplace.  We were like two large bookends…

After breakfast, Nathan, Janice, Laurie and I hit the road to Shiawassee County Michigan.

Our first stop was at Durand’s Union Station.  Originally this was a busy Grand Trunk Western Railroad and Ann Arbor Railroad station.  Built in 1903, it also served as a local office for Grand Trunk Western.  Today it is owned by the City of Durand.  It is leased by Durand Union Station, Inc., a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the preservation of the depot and its adjoining property. 

This unique railway station is situated at the junction of Canadian National Railway’s mainline interchange of the Flint and Holly Subdivisions.  In addition, both the Great Lakes Central Railroad and Huron and Eastern Railway operate neat the depot.  The depot is very popular with rail fans from across the USA due to its unusual and striking architecture.  Note the pop of color with the presence of that Grand Trunk Railroad caboose...

Grand Trunk Western decided to close the Durand Union Station in 1974 because of declining traffic.  This spectacular building was scheduled to be torn down, but the city of Durand filed for an injunction to stop the demolition.  The City purchased the depot in 1979 for $1.00.

Amtrak restored service through the depot in 1974.  Today Amtrak provides daily intercity passenger rail service on the “Blue Water” route between Chicago Illinois and Port Huron Michigan.  In 2021, Amtrak reported passenger boarding’s that totaled 5,824 in Durand. 

The Durand Union Station also is the home of the Michigan Railroad History Museum, an educational and entertaining source for Michigan’s expansive railroad history.  In addition, this depot is home to the Durand Union Station Model Railroad Engineers, Inc.  They maintain a model railway display in the old mail/storage room in the depot.  For more information go to http://durandstation.org/michigan-railroad-history-museum.html.

I came across this old photo on-line and I just couldn’t resist including it in this post… As I’d mentioned earlier, this handsome depot served both the Grand Trunk Western and the Ann Arbor Railroads.  Those rail lines actually crossed right at the station.  The station was partially destroyed by fire in 1905 but it was quickly repaired.  Given the scene depicted in the photo it’s not hard to believe that at the peak, the Durand Union Station served 42 passenger trains, and 22 mail trains and another 78 trains passed through Durand each day.

This is another photo borrowed from the Internet that shows Grand Trunk Western Steam Locomotive #6319 arriving in Durand.  It was the town’s last steam-powered passenger run.  The date was March 17, 1960.  Interestingly, despite Durand’s important as a major rail hub, with such an impressive depot, Durand has never had a large population.  At the peak of railroading in 1930, the town had a population of 3,031.  As of 2020, Durand is home to 3,507 residents.

In a Kiwanis park near Durand’s Union Station, we noted this old Grand Trunk Railroad locomotive on static display.  It was accompanied with what appeared to me to be a former baggage car, as well as an old signal control tower.

This is steam locomotive #5632 back in the days when it was still in use.  Three of these Class K-4-b Pacific type (4-6-2) locomotives were built in 1929 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for Grand Trunk Western’s passenger service.  The locomotive and its tender weigh about 255 tons.  The tender could hold 10,000 gallons of water plus 16 tons of coal.  Locomotive #5632 was operational well in the 1950s.  It was donated to the City of Durand in 1961.

Despite much effort, I cannot determine when this early Grand Trunk Railway Passenger Depot or the adjoining Freight Depot was built in Owosso Michigan.  I do know that as of 2015, the passenger depot was being used by the local Elks Lodge.  As you can see, it’s fairly intact at least on the outside.  It’s very unusual that I can’t find any information about this apparently abandoned depot…

I did learn that at one time Owosso was home to 3 different railroad stations for 3 different railroad companies.  They were: Ann Arbor Railroad (route from Elberta Michigan to Toledo Ohio); New York Central aka the Michigan Central Railroad (Bay City Michigan to Jackson Michigan) and of course, the Grand Trunk Western (Muskegon Michigan to Detroit Michigan.

I also learned that the first train to reach Owosso was in 1856 on the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee division of the Grand Trunk rail system.  A second line, once referred to as the Saginaw division of the Michigan Central Railroad opened in town in late 1862.

FYI, the city was named after Chief Wosso or Wassa, an Ojibwe leader in the Shiawassee area.  In the 1950s, a major Montgomery Alabama newspaper reported the Owosso was a “sundown town”, where African Americans were not allowed to live or stay overnight.  Reportedly, there were 4 such towns or cities in Michigan.

This is the Shiawassee County Courthouse.  It’s located in Corunna Michigan.  This handsome structure was completed in 1904 in the Classic Revival style.  It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the building continues to function as the seat of county offices and it is an active courthouse.

Shiawassee County was first organized in 1837.  It was named for the Shiawassee River.  The Native American definition for Shiawassee is “river that twists about”.  Another source reports that a European fur trapper in the area asked the Native Americans for direction to their reservation.  They answered in their own language, saying “Shiawassee”, which meant “the river straight ahead”. 

During World War II, the U.S. Government set up 25 Prisoner of War Camps in Michigan.  One of them was called “Camp Owosso” and it was established at a local dirt race track.  Prisoners were kept in tents with cement floors.  A kitchen, showers and toilets were also built.  In May of 1944, 200 veterans of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps arrived at the camp.  By July of 1944, 375 prisoners were being held at “Camp Owosso”.

National attention was focused on Shiawassee County when 2 of the German POW’s escaped from their work assignment and made their way to a spot where 2 American women were waiting for them with a car.  They sped away but the next day they were found hiding in a ‘thicket’.  The Germans were returned to the camp and the 2 women were prosecuted in federal court and served time in prison.

That’s all for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave