CHAPTER IX

BAY COUNTY’S LUMBER, SALT AND COAL INDUSTRIES AND TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.

Pleasant it was, when woods were green

And winds were soft and low,

Where, the long drooping boughs between,

Shadows dark and sunlight sheen

Alternate come and go;

Or where the denser grove receives

No sunlight from above,

But the dark foliage interweaves

In one unbroken roof of leaves,

Underneath whose sloping eaves,

The shadows hardly move.

Before me rose an avenue

Of tall and somberous pines’

Abroad their fan-like branches grew,

And, where the sunlight darted through

Spread a vapor soft and blue,

In long and sloping lines.

Longfellow

LUMBER

The Pine Tree’s Lament! I am the monarch of the forest. My proud head far over-steps my smaller and yet ambitious, companions. In vain do they wish to become my equal. With dismay do they realize their inability to do so, for I am the giant, and they the pygmies. Beneath my branches may they take refuge from the impending storm but never to become as great and as majestic as I. Fortunate is it that they are small. Little do they realize the terrible fate which awaits such as I. Were I of the pigmy family, I would be passed over in silence, to remain in the enjoyment of the rest of my days. But great beings like myself are never allowed to die from natural causes. Nay! We are plucked like the budding rose in the bloom of youth. The winds of a hundred winters have whistled through my branches. On and on might I live, but for the relentless, unceasing ravages of the woodsmen’s army. My time will soon come. The progress of the so-called civilization demands my downfall. And then my present anxious fellows may have the satisfaction seeing my life ebb. I can foresee my fate. In the autumn the army of woodsmen will invade the quiet of the forest, and with their glistening axes will begin chopping at my very base. My thick coating of bark, that has protected me through the chilly blasts of winter, cannot withstand their sharp blades. My body is penetrated after a succession of powerful blows and a few strokes of the cross-cut saw complete the mischief. I totter, tremble, and then fall with a creaking, crashing noise, ending in a heavy thud that thundering echoes through the forest. I am down, and at the mercy of those who so ruthlessly ended my existence. They pounce upon me like wild beasts upon a fawn. At their mercy as I am, they stand upon me and gloat over their superiority. In my fall my branches bring neighboring trees to the ground as well, and with these in my grasp I had hoped to strike my destroyers, but their agility and foresight kept them out of reach. Standing on either side of my prostrate form, these knights of the axe and saw measure my body into various lengths, and to make my destruction more complete, they saw through my side until my limbs are severed and my body cut into as many lengths as they deem fit. The top that once towered above the forest is left to an ignominious end. Each of the several portions of my badly are inspected and then the bark from a portion of one side is stripped off, and trampled under foot. Then a sleigh with a team of oxen or horses comes along. Onto this sleigh am I bolted with a ponderous chain, and in an instant, at the crack of the blacksnake whip. I am hauled out into the skid-way. This I find in tow logs laid parallel and about 11 feet apart. On these am I lifted to remain until the coming of snow and ice of another winter. Were I near a winding river, I should be piled upon its banks, to remain until the rush of waters in spring would carry me on their bosom to its mouth, there to be imprisoned in a boom, until such times as my captors decide to haul me over the blue waters of the bay to the great metropolis on the mightier river. Were there no river I should find the skid-way on a cut by the railway. With hundreds of my species I would be piled on a flat car and whirled at the great speed-up grades, around dizzy curves, through villages and towns, until here too I reach this self same city, where from a high trestle I am dumped unceremoniously into the dark waters of some mill boom. As I bob about some man comes along with a long pole, in which is a sharp brad and hook, with which he catches and drags me alongside a row of other unfortunates. Then I   am hauled a prisoner to a place which buzzes like a beehive. Some rude jerks land me alongside of an inclined plane, going up to and into a huge building whence come all this noise and confusion. Without warning a sharp hook of the continuous chain catches my head and I am forcibly dragged up the sluiceway into the noisy beehive. Then two spiteful, ugly looking, heavy sticks of wood, rounded on top, and having several sharp pieces of iron on the side, suddenly spring out of their hiding places in the floor and strike me a terrific blow on the side, sending me upon an iron carriage. Two men on board clinch me with iron teeth, and held me so that I cannot get away. A signal is given, the carriage begins to move, and in an instant a saw is burying itself into my body. This operation is repeated a few times, I am turned occasionally so that my sides may be inspected and soon I have lost my identity. I am no longer a proud tree, but merely a squared piece of timber known as a “cant.”

  Such in truth was the course of all the majestic pines that once made a “black forest” of all this valley and the country for hundreds of miles to the northward. True, this lone tree must have escaped the earlier visitations, for the sawmills and logging camps underwent great changes in the course of years. The lumbermen sought to save the waste, reduce the loss and diminish the cost of production. Wonderful labor-saving machinery replaced the original primitive methods. The capacity of the mills was doubled and trebled by simple devices suggested by the ingenuity of individuals and the experience of years.

  The fine logs first go to the band-saw, where the operator cuts each board to the best advantage as the face of the log may indicate after a few cuts. At this point we have the wide, thick sidings, known as “uppers.” The central portion, probably 12 inches through is passed over on rollers to the gang feed-rolls, which carry it into the series of gang-saws, that saw it into the ordinary stock boards of modern lumberyards. The wide, thick uppers or sidings, varying in size, are passed over live rollers to a parallel edger, where two transfer chains take it. The skid-way operator will set the saws so that the best possible quantity of clear lumber will be obtained. Usually only the wane, sap and bark is taken off the two edges. The pieces taken off are of various lengths for staves, lath, sash-stuff and shorts. The loss incurred here by the old mills would today more than pay for the running of the whole plant. Expert sawyers get the good boards squared at the correct length with the first cut. Next the boards are rapidly sorted, the square-edge stock boards go to the trimmer, while the others go to the edger. Expert trimmers next remove all shaky ends, rotten butts, and waney ends so as to be fit for marketing, as firs, second or third grades. Expert sorters next pile the boards on separate cars, according to grades, and these are pushed over the tramway to their respective piles About 75 per cent of the output of modern sawmills are stock boards. The rest are mill culls, for home consumption, and shipping culls for shipment. The slabs which years ago went to waste in the refuse burners are today cut up for staves, lath, and shingles or box boards, and the remainder is cut in stove lengths for fire wood, and commands good prices. Fortunes have been wasted in the old crude manner of sawing logs and the reckless slaughter of the pines, when only the best was preserved, and all else went to waste.

  When Judge Albert Miller laid out the prospective village of Portsmouth, he realized that his first requirement would be a sawmill to supply the lumber for the homes of the prospective settlers, for there seemed to be timber enough along the river to supply all the then known world. In 1836 Cromwell Barney began the erection of the framework for the sawmill wile while Judge Miller went to Huron Ohio to buy a second hand engine and machinery. The influx of immigrants from New York and the east kept all the lake craft busy and, as it was then November, it took Judge Miller two weeks at Detroit before he bought the schooner “Elizabeth ward” for $2,000 to make the trip, he to furnish his own crew. After placing all the machinery aboard together with several thousand dollars worth of provisions, the boat started up the Detroit River, November 22, 1836. The Indian trail to Flint was deep with mud, and he had to leave his horse at Flint, and continue home on foot. When he reached home he found the river frozen over solidly, and no sign from the vessel! Daily for a week he went to the mouth of the river on the ice, but to no purpose, the boat never came. Finally he learned that his captain and four $2.50 per day sailors had tied up at Port Huron and were living easy on his supplies! Judge Miller made another trying trip to Port Huron, where he fired the crew, and arranged to have the machinery hauled over on sleds, which had to cross the wilds of St. Clair, Macomb, Oakland, Genesee and Saginaw counties, a lurid experience, full of hazards and hardships! But by April 1, 1837, the mill was ready for operations, and that day the first pine log was cut within the borders of Bay County. The mill erected under such primitive and trying circumstances was soon silenced by the panic of 1837, and all the fond hopes of the farseeing mill operator were shattered for awhile.

  In 1841 James McCormick and his son, James J. McCormick, came from the Tittabawassee Indian field, and reopened the mill. They shipped the first boat load of lumber to Detroit in 1842, the cut being 60 per cent uppers, for which they received $8 per thousand, one third down, the rest in eight and 10 months! The “Conneaut Packet,” Capt. George Raby commanding, carried this first load of lumber out of the wood bound stream. Thousands of cargoes followed in after years, following mainly the course of that first boat load down the Detroit River. James J. McCormick operated the mill until 1849, when the gold fever called him to California. It was destroyed by fire in 1862.

  In 1844-45 James Fraser, in association with Gromwell Barney and Israel Catlin, erected the water mill at Kawkawlin. In 1845-46 the first sawmill was built in Bay City proper, by James Fraser, Hopkins and Pomeroy, on the site where a60 years after, Samuel G.M. Gates is still busy converting logs into lumber! In 1847 James Fraser and Isreal Gatlin built the mill, later known as the Jennison & Rouse mill, on Water street, between 9^th street and McKinley avenue. More than a dozen mills sprang up along the river front from 1850 to 1854, and by 1857 there were already 14 mills, the output of each mill averaging from 1,500,000 to 4,000,000 feet per annum.

  When Bay City began its corporate existence in 1865, there were 18 sawmills in operation on the east side, six on the west side and one at Kawkawlin. Here are those pioneer mills with their output in that memorable year; Nathan B. Bradley, 6,800,000 feet; Fay & Gates, 4,500,000; Samuel Pitts, 6,800,000; Watrous & Southworth, 3,000,000; Young, 1,200,000; Miller & Post, 4,00,000; Peter & Lewis, 4,00,000; James J. McCormick, 4,400,000; J.F. Rust Company, 4,000,000; James Watson, 3,000,000; William Peter, 7,200,000; Miller & Company, 6,000,000; H.M. Bradley, 4,000,000; Jennison & Catlin, 3,500,000; James Sherer, 6,815,000; Dolson & Walker, 1,5,00,000; McEwan & Fraser, 6,000,000; braddock, 3,000,000. Hon. Nathan B Bradley, Samuel G.M. Gates, and charles E Jennison alone remain to celebrate with us this 40^th anniversary of that season. On the West Side, the Juron Company cut 3,180,000 feet; Sage & McGraw, 9,000,000; Drake Brothers, 3,000,000; Bolton, 5,500,000; Taylor & Moulthrop, 6,000,000; Moore & Smith, 7,000,000; while the Kawkawlin mill cut 5,000,000 feet.

  George w. Hotchkiss, historian of Bay City in 1876, the centennial year, in accordance with the suggestion made to the cities of the country by President Rutherford B. Hayes, speaks of those early mills in the Lumberman’s Exchange as follows: “These sawmills all used gate, muley or circular saws, producing 200,000,000 feet of lumber and 2,000,000 cords of sawdust annually. The saws were six-gauge circulars, swayed to four-gauge and the sawdust heap rivaled the lumber pile!”

  Sage & McGraw were the first to introduce the modern gang-saw. In 1880 there were 32 sawmills, but their capacity was three times that of the 24 mills along the river here in 1865. In 1865 it cost almost as much to handle the sawdust and slabs as it did to handle the lumber produced, but all this changed with the general introduction of the small-gauge gang-saws. In 1853 a local mill owner wagered a bottle of champagne that his circular-saw would average 1,500 feet per hour all day! He won, but it took his edger crew half the night to clear up the lumber such an unusual cut had buried them under! The gang-saws changed all this, averaging from 6,000 to 9,000 feet per hour, and the edgers cut now with the double edger.

  The list of mills on the river here had the new additions, in 1875, of Brooks & Adams, Charles M. Smith & Company and Laderbach Brothers, Salzburg; Keystone Salt & Lumber Company, Banks; and Chapin & Barber, John Carrier Company, Hay, Butman & Company, Eddy, Avery & Company. S.H. Webster, Pitts & Cranage, Folsom & Arnold, Rust & company, Ames Brothers, and J.M. rouse, on the east Side, with cuts for the year running from 1,000,000 to the 15,000,000 feet cut by the Sage mill. In 1879 the west Side had the mills of R. J. Briscoe, E.J. Hargrave, who in 1905 is still sawing away at the good old mill on the Middle Ground; L.L. Hotchkiss, Murphy & Dorr, W.H. Malone, now interested in D.H. Briscoe & company; D.W. Merrick, and Peter Smith & Sons. The junior members of the last named firm, Peter c. and Charles J.Smith, are still in the harness in 1905. The East Side had added the mills of r.E. Bradley, S. McLean & Son, Miller & Lewis, A. Chesbrough and the mammoth plant of T.H. McGraw & Company. The cut of the Sage mill in 1880 was 29,388,976 feet, while McGraw passed this great record easily with 34,000,000 feet! The total for 1880 was 422,783,741 feet of lumber, in addition to lath, staves, shingles, etc.! the billion mark was next set and passed by the collective efforts of all the mills in Bay County. What wonder that the forests vanished like a dream of the night before this onslaught, and by 1885 the question of log supply began to haunt the plans of the mill owners and operators. Ten years later, Congress cut off the only remaining supply of pine logs in Canada, and the death knell had sounded for the main industry here for the 60 years since the first mill was started by Judge Miller.

  As we look back over the lumber data for those 60 years, we cannot help but marvel at the good fortune attending its development. For after all there must be a demand for lumber, before so many sawmills could be profitably operated. And the growth of our lumber industry during all those years merely kept pace with the growth and development of the country at large, and more particularly of the Middle West. New wood-working industries sprang up, demanding the product of our mills, and seldom was there much of the manufactured product left unsold upon the river docks during all those years. Since these cities were then altogether dependent upon the lumber industry, the weal and woes of the lumber trade were of vital importance to the entire community. The artisan, mechanic, laborer, merchant, and farmer, all felt the beneficent influence of good lumber prices and ready sales.

  Until 1885 the mill workers were content to work 12 hours each day during the summer season, and each winter most of them went into the lumber woods and logging camps for the same employers. With the advent of shorter hours of labor for many crafts all over the country, and the very evident limitations of Michigan’s future log supply, the sawmill employees also sought to improve their working conditions. “Ten hours or no sawdust” was their slogan, and for a few weeks in that year the mills were idle. But prices of lumber were high, the demand great, experienced sawyers scarce, and the men were eventually granted the 10 hr work day, which prevails in the various branches of the lumber industry all over the country to this day.

  With the advent of other and varied industries, the hardwood logging camps have found it quite difficult to find swampier, skidders, and sawyers who understand the business and are willing to go into the woods, and consequently wages for this work have also materially increased in recent years.

  Considerable logging is still being done in Garfield, Gibson and Mount Forest townships, supplying the wooden-ware works and hoop factories. Portable sawmills move about the western townships, clearing the land now wanted for farming and furnishing the lumber for the homes, barns and fences of the rural inhabitants. These wooded townships have for years supplied the oak timber for Davidson’s shipyard, and thousands of feet have been shipped abroad, much of it going to England in earlier years. The oak timber was very large and of the best quality, but is now almost exhausted in this immediate vicinity. Tamarack, for upper deck te4ams and similar ship-building purposes, plenty of fine oak timber, and tall straight pines for masts and spars, made the construction of wooden ships here both easy and profitable. For many years, oak timber delivered in the river brought $105 per 1,000 cubic feet. Red oak figures to this day largely in the manufacture of staves and is still quite plentiful in the territory tributary to Bay city.

  Since brick and asphalt are the favored paving materials, the cedar of this vicinity goes largely into railroad work and fence posts.

  Birds-eye and other maple abound in this vicinity, as do birch; beech, hemlock, white ash, butternut and similar woods of great value for the furniture and carriage building business, but until now such lumber has been shipped to grand rapids and other furniture manufacturing centers. Apparently no one has ever thought of saving all that freight on the timber and lumber, by putting up those factories in the midst of this timber supply, cheap fuel and our easy and cheap shipping facilities! Elm and black ash still abound here, and are used extensively in the manufacture of barrels, staves and hoops.

  The soft woods, such as bass, poplar, etc., also abound hereabouts, making excellent pulp for making paper, and several of the less well situated and smaller cities to the north have within recent years erected large tanneries and paper pulp mills, while somehow, here too. Bay city’s preeminent advantages have been totally overlooked.

  Plaining mills and box factories have to some extent replaced the great sawmills, but there is still much room for kindred wood-working industries.

  The rejuvenated Bay City Board of Trade should make a study of these industries, their source of raw material supply, and similar advantages and seek to secure some of these modern plants for this city. With the combined efforts of both sides of the river, there is still a chance to develop industries for the finer manipulation of the remaining timber and lumber supply, which once established are bound to bring kindred institutions to this locality. Pine is no longer king here, but there are still thousands of acres of other and equally valuable timber tracts within easy hauling distance of Bay City, and with proper study and encouragement, new and even more profitable branches of the lumber industry could be brought here. This is conclusively proven by the roster of our sawmills still in operation in 1905, with their constantly increasing business in mixed hardwood, as enumerated in the leading industries of Greater Bay City.

  A roster of the sawmills still in operation in 1905, the survivors of our “Piny Days,” will include the Courval mill, the Detroit mill and those of Wyllie & Buell, J.J. Flood, Kneeland-Bigelow Company, E.J. Hargrave, J.R. Hichcock, Kern Manufacturing Company, Campbell-Brown Lumber Company, and Samuel G. M. Gates. The log supply comes entirely from the north by rail, branch roads tapping the very heart of the timber belt, and the mills are no longer dependent upon the snow and ice of winter or the flooding of spring to haul and flood thir log supply precariously to the mill boom. The W.D. Young & Company’s hardwood plant in Salzburg is one of the largest of its kind in the world. The lumber yards of Mershon, Schuette, Parker & Company, E. B. Foss & Company, and Bradley, Miller & Company, the last named on the West Side, are immense institutions, whose busy docks are vivid reminders of the palmiest days of this great industry. All have large planing-mills and accessories, where the lumber is finished for the finer trade. A score of smaller plants are engaged in the same line of the lumber trade, and altogether Bay County still ranks high in the country’s statistics of the lumber industry.

SALT

  The act admitting Michigan into the Union of States, passed by congress in 1836 provided among other things that all salt springs in the State not exceeding 12 in number, with six sections of land adjoining each, might be selected by the State, and in pursuance thereof the Legislature in July, 1836, authorized the governor to make the selection. Most of the lands selected were in the grand River basin, one was selected at the mouth of the salt river on the Tittabawassee. Dr. Houghton, State geologist, commenced boring for salt and continued until June 15, 1838, when his appropriation was exhausted and the work abandoned. It was dr. Houghton’s opinion at that time that the center of the salt basin was the Saginaw Valley.

  In 1850 Judge James Birney, of Bay City, succeeded in getting a bill through the Legislature providing for a bounty of 10 cents per bushel on salt. This stimulated more boring, and in June, 1860, the flow of brine was struck 600 feet beneath the surface. All the business men in the valley at once came down with the “salt fever!”

  The Portsmouth Salt company was organized March 13, 1860, with James J. McCormick, Appleton stevens, D.F. Beckwith, A.D. Braddock, Albert Miller, Charles E. Jennison, W. Daglish and William R. McCormick as incorporators. The Bay City Salt Company filed its articles of association May 18, 1860. James Fraser, D,.H. Fitzhugh, H.M. Fitzhugh, Curtis Munger and Algernon S. Munger being the incorporators. In June, 1861, the South End company produced the first salt in Bay County. The Bay City company had their well on the site of the Michigan Pipe Company’s plant. The two were sunk purposely far apart as there were many people who believed that the supply of brine would soon be exhausted at the rate wells were going down.

  However it has since been found that there is an inexhaustible supply of brine rock underlying Bay County and that a limitless supply of fine brine may be secured for the mere pumping. For more than 40 years this pumping has been going on here, and the supply is as good and plenty as ever.

  The North American chemical Company came here chiefly because of this flow of brine, and they would also like to secure rock salt for some of their chemicals. In 1901 they bored to a depth of 3,500 feet, without striking the salt rock, and the drill becoming fast, the work was abandoned. Another attempt is soon to be made, as geologists are satisfied that this salt rock does exist. The coal mine shafts have not touched it because they do not go down that far. Oddly enough, the boring for these salt wells all went through the extensive vein of bituminous coal, but the borers were intent on salt, and passed everything else by.

  The brine of the Bay County salt wells stands at 96 and 98 by the salinometer, and is quite free from troublesome impurities, or bitter water as the salt trade calls them. Dr. S. S. Garrignes was the first salt inspector appointed by the Governor, and from that day to this the inspection of the salt has been rigid, and the supply to the markets of the world correspondingly pure and wholesome. The cheap means of securing good barrels here presented from the first a ready and good means of salt packing.

  The original kettle system of evaporation early gave way to the pan system, where the exhaust steam from the sawmills did the work of evaporation. This kept the cost of production at a minimum, and provided new uses for the waste materials of the sawmills. The brine of Canada is equally good, and labor cheaper, but by this means the local salt wells managed to compete with them successfully. The earliest salt shipments brought $1.40 per barrel, and the cost of manufacturing in connection with the sawmills was computed at from 60 to 80 cents per barrel. This included all labor, cost of barrel and packing. It will readily be seen that there was a good margin at first, but the price gradually came down.

  Bay County salt has long been distinguished in the world’s markets because it does not cake in the barrels, a characteristic of all rock salt. This non caking quality makes Bay County salt very desirable, but it has been found that the producers of caking rock salt have placed false labels on their product, having it appear as Saginaw Valley salt. This induced the Legislature in April, 1905, to send a committee to Chicago and other salt shipping points to investigate these impositions, with a view to passing a law making this a criminal offense.

  The salt produced by the North American Chemical Company is shipped almost exclusively to Chicago and Duluth, in barrels and in bulk, as the trade demands, the shipments being made in large quantities by water. Their new loading device will handle 100 tons of salt per hour, and will expedite their salt business. This mammoth plant now has 27 wells in operation, all being down 1,000 feet, and the blocks supplied with the very latest devices for securing absolutely pure salt. The results are naturally far in advance of the earlier salt wells and blocks.

  The mill-owners were quick to see the profits of running salt wells in connection with their sawmills, and by 1865 practically every sawmill had its slat-block annex. In 1865 over $700,000 was invested in the salt industry here, and the output exceeded 200,000 barrels. As the mills increased, so did the salt wells, and in 1880 the production in Bay County was more than 900,000 barrels. In 1882 the State inspection was made on 1,158,279 barrels of which 439,996 barrels were shipped by water, and over 550,000 barrels by rail.

  The price declined steadily, as the production increased and in 1882 was down to 70 cents per barrel. In 1876 the salt manufacturers organized the Salt Association of Michigan, Judge Albert Miller being vice president, and Thomas Granage, treasurer, with John McEwan, J.R. Hall, J.L. Dolsen, H.M. Bradley and H.C. Moore, of Bay City, on the executive board. The capital stock was $200,000 in 8,000 shares at $25 each. Bay City had 15 out of 48 share-holders. Every manufacturer in becoming a share-holder of the association is obliged to execute and deliver a contract for all salt manufactured by him, or a lease of his salt manufacturing property. Each member makes salt only on the association’s account, while the board of directors has the power to determine the rate of advance in the price of salt, and it also has the power of appointing traveling or resident agents for the sale of salt. Such was this “Salt Trust” in 1881, a very prototype of the much abused combination of industry and capital–the trust of 1905. But here the consumer could not complain, because the price of table salt has always been extremely low, owing to the unlimited supply of this valley and its cheap production. The remaining salt-wells are independent of the salt trust organized in the East some years ago.

  Salt is given some attention in the 22^nd annual report, Michigan Bureau of Labor, for the year 1904. The report quotes the rapid increase of the salt industry in the salt basin during the palmy days of the lumber industry. It goes on to say that coal has to a large extent become the fuel for operating the remaining salt-wells, and unlike many other kindred industries, which were crippled by the exit of the lumber industry, the manufacture of salt seems to be little affected. Bay County now has four of the 41 salt manufacturing institutions in Michigan. With coal proving so easy of access in the salt basin of Central Michigan, the State authorities anticipate the gradual revival of the salt industry, as many savings are now accomplished that in Michigan will make up the difference in the cost of fuel. This official report for the year 1904 shows four plants in operation in Bay County, which have been in business for an average of 12 years. The aggregate cost of these four plants is given at $106,000 an average of $26,500 per plant; aggregate annual cost of repairs, $10,472 and average of $2,618 per plant; aggregate daily capacity, 1,445 barrels, an average of 361 per plant, aggregate number of barrels made in 1904, 272,502, an average of 68,125, while in 1903 the aggregate was 298,986 barrels, and average of 74,746. Thirty six per cent of the product was sold in bulk, 47 per cent in barrels and 17 per cent in table packages; 55 per cent of the output in bay County was sold in the State. The average daily wages were $1.67 and 142 people were employed.

  The historian of Bay City in 1876 had his suspicions that underneath his feet at no great depth was a good layer of bituminous coal, for had not the drills for salt-wells often brought up bits of coal from strata of unknown thickness? Even before that date Counna, 40 miles to the south, had a mine in full operation. Out-croppings of coal were also found all about the valley, particularly to the south and east. But the populace at Bay City was too busy slaughtering the pines, to care much whether that vein of coal was three inches or three feet thick. The refuse of the sawmills furnished plenty and cheap fuel, hence there was no particular demand for cheap coal. But the chronicler of 1876 was certain that coal did exist here, and he was equally certain, that when veins worth working were opened, iron manufacture in all its forms would come to replace the lumber industry. His first surmise has since been amply verified, and we heartily endorse his belief, that the iron and copper ore of the Lake Superior region could be brought here cheaper than to any of its present manufacturing point having all the other advantages offered by their present location, and some good ones in addition thereto. Hence it would seem that the business interests of Greater Bay City should also take this proposition in hand, through its Board of Trade. Once convinced that we have all the facilities for their purpose, the smelters and iron manufacturers will not be slow to take advantage of them. Let us remember how minutely the beet sugar business had to be demonstrated before a single factory was secured, and let it be noted how speedily these sugar factories multiplied in Michigan, when once the success of the enterprise was assured! We predict that similar results will follow the study of the iron industry, as applied to local conditions with reference to the source of the raw material and the easy access to the markets of the world, either by water or rail.

  Thus has in fact been the experience of the coal industry itself in Bay County. When in 1897 Alexander Zagelmeyer and few others had proved by systematic and scientific boring that coal existed in paying quantities under the prosperous farms of Monitor and Frankenlust township, when in that year the first shaft was sunk for the original Michigan coal mine, and a vein some four feet thick was worked, with very little trouble from water, the future of the bituminous coal industry in Bay County was assured! Men and capital were ready at once to follow this lead, and in a few years Bay County had 14 coal mines!

  We find in the United States government report on our country’s mineral resources, that there are 335,000 square miles of the bituminous coal area. Michigan is called the Northern field, and its coal area is limited to the central part of the Lower Peninsula. The discovery of paying coal veins here in 1897 stimulated the sinking of coal shafts in all parts of this area so that in 1904 Michigan ranks 22^nd in the list of coal-producing States, where eight years before she had no rating at all. We find in the State geological survey for 1904 the following general arrangement of the Lower Michigan rocks: Drill for 65 feet, slate 50 to 100 feet, Upper Carbon coal group. Then Parma, 100 feet; Gypsum, 300; Marshall sandstone 75; Coldwater shales, 800; Berea sandstones, 65; Antrim shales, 225; Traverse group 350; Dundee limestone 100, Monroe beds, 700, etc. the State geologist explores the fact that out of the numerous deep wells put down in Bay County, only a few have preserved records of the rock formations traversed.

  The deepest hole in Michigan’s surface, aside from the deep copper mines of the Upper Peninsula, was the drill for rock salt of the North American Chemical Company in the south End, which reached a depth of over 3,500 feet before work on it was abandoned. Drift was found for 120 feet; coal measures 444; then 200 feet of limestone; and at a depth of 586 feet the flow of 85 per cent brine. Then came sand rock down to 635 feet; sandy shale for the next 25 feet; blue shale for 40 feet; and at a depth of 712 feet came 10 feet of gypsum. Then came 98 feet of blue shale; 10 of hard lime rock, 80 of sandstone, and there, at a depth of 920 feet, the second flow of brine, 100 per cent. All of Bay County’s present salt wells, by the way, reach this second flow of brine. Then came 135 feet of red and white shale, and so on down to 3,508 feet. Similar rock formations are registered at Kawkawlin and a salt-well in Hampton. The State geologist is still confident that rock salt exists below that free flow of brine, but if it is more than 3,500 feet below the surface, it would not pay to secure it. Hence the attempt was given up, but the experiment of the North American Chemical Company has proven of much benefit to future geological surveys at such great depth in other parts of the State.

  But to return to the discovery of a paying vein of soft coal underneath Bay County, and its development. The Michigan mine was quickly followed by the sinking of the Monitor mine shaft. Expert coal miners were brought here from Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania, and coal leases were sought among the farmers of that vicinity with feverish flurry. At first the coal mining rights were sold outright by the farmers, but of late years the farmers merely execute long term leases, with a proviso, that they get a royalty on all coal mined.

  Handy Brothers established the first mine in Bangor township, following it soon after with a second shaft in the same vicinity.

  Then E.B. Foss and George d. Jackson sank a shaft on the historic ground of Oa-at-ka Beach, near the mouth of the Kawkawlin River. Here they found the finest vein of coal in all Bay Country, and it is to this day one of the most productive mines in Michigan. The great danger is the flooding of the mine, as the bay is but a few hundred yards to the east. The last time this happened was in April, 1905, when the mine had to be shut down, owing to the rush of waters. This mine is splendidly equipped with all modern appliances, and its pumping apparatus would keep an ordinary mine clear at all times. The flow of water gradually recedes, and then mining is resumed.

  The Pittsburg mine shaft was sunk near the pretty village of Amelith, the Valley mine near Frankenlust, where are also the Bay mine No. 2, the Hecla mine and, still nearer the city limits, the Central mine, while the Salzburg mine is located near the very center of that suburb, and the United city mine is also within the city limits on North Union street. The Wolverine mines Nos. 2 and 3 are in Williams township, the farthest west of the city, and the new Auburn mine is located in the same vicinity. An excellent vein exists thereabouts, and the Midland Branch of the Michigan Central Railroad furnishes easy transportation to the miners and the coal.

  The latest working addition to Bay County’s mines is the What cheer mine in Merritt township, 10 miles southeast of Bay City, located and operated by E.B.Foss. So confident is Mr. Foss in the excellence of that East side veink, that he is even now arranging with other capitalists to build a railroad through the “Thumb” to Port Huron, to handle his coal. Rights of way have been secured, as well as an entrance into the lake harbor at Port Huron with terminals in this city, so that this mine will mean the fulfillment of a long cherished wish to have railroad connection with Tuscola, Sanilac, Huron and St. Clair counties.

The government geological survey for 1904 gives the coal area for Michigan at 11,300 square miles. The coal output in Michigan for 1898 was 315,722 short tons: 624,708 in 1899: 849,475 in 1900: 1,241,241 in 1901: 964,718 in 1902: and 1,367,619 in 1903. The falling off in 1902 was due to the strike of the coal miners, which for many weeks closed down all the mines. The value of the output at the mines for 1903 was given at Washington as $2,707,527. Owing to the shortage of the fuel supply in 1903, the price of this coal advanced from $1.71 in 1902 to $1.97 per ton in 1903. The miners averaged 171 days in 1902, against 247 working days in 1903. The average number of men employed in Michigan was 2,276 in 1901: 2,344 in 1902 and 2,768 in 1903. The average production per miner was 494 tons in 1901: 411 tons in 1902 and 545 tons in 1903. The working day in all the Michigan coal mines has been from the first eight hours.

  The coal production of Bay County in 1902 was 248,645 tons, of which the local consumption was 29,596 tons, 9,916 tons were consumed at the mines, and 209,133 tons were loaded at the mines for shipment. The total value was $410,615; average price, $1.65; average days in operation, 149; and 660 miners found employment. In 1903 there was loaded at the mines for shipment, 288,284 tons; 24,215 tons were sold for local consumption and 12,522 tons were consumed at the mines, making a total output for 1903 for 325,021 tons. The total value of Bay County’s output for 1903 was $607,091, with $1.87 per ton, 206 working days and a force of 714 skilled miners. These mineral statistics do not include the many workingmen used in and about these coal mines, but merely the machine and pick miners.

  The average price of this coal in Michigan was $1.62 in 1896; $1.46 in 1897; $1.47 in 1898; $1.39 in 1899; $1.48 in 1900; $1.41 in 1901; $1.71 in 1902; and $1.97 in 1903.

  It will be seen that the opening of new mines did not reduce the price of the coal at the mines. On the contrary, the price has materially advanced and quite beyond the per cent of increase in cost of mining. It follows that more mines would be operated under these conditions, if there was a ready market for the coal at these prices. But either the present mine operators hold their commodity at too high a figure, or else the railroads, upon whom the mines are dependent for moving their output, have discriminating rates in favor of the older coal fields of Ohio. This latter appears to be the case, for the Ohio mines deliver coal much cheaper in Detroit than the Michigan mines can.

  It would seem that these mines will have to look to water transportation to meet this adverse condition. It is apparent that the coal will have to be hauled from the mines to the river wharves, and that the same railroads now own these tracks, but an industry with such a bright future must rise to the occasion! The several mines, or all in one section by collective action, will have to won and operate their own branch roads from the mines to deep water, and then their transportation problem will be solved and solved right. The mere decision to do so may bring the established roads to see the error of their ways, and so insure the Bay County coal as liberal and fair treatment as is accorded the Ohio and Pennsylvania product.

  Great as has been the growth of the coal industry in Bay County in a short seven years, there is still but a crude beginning. The known coal area of Bay county extends from its western border to Munger on the east–20 miles from east to west–and from Amelith to the Kawkawlin river–12 miles from north to south! The vein in all this region varies but little, and mining is possible under identical conditions. Since the coal lies so close to the surface, the cost of sinking the shaft and providing ventilation hauling and draining facilities, is not excessive, and on the basis of even the lowest bituminous coal prices in the last 10 years, the business appears to offer a margin that must attract capital, and prove a boon to labor and the business interests of Bay County.

  More interesting data is gathered from the last report of the state labor commissioner. There were 28 mines in operation in Michigan in 1904, with 2,714 employees, averaging 7.7 hours per day and 18.3 days per month. This lack of work in 1904 was due almost entirely to a lack of cars and a consequent slow turn. At the time when there was a demand for the coal, the mines could get no cars, and so the competitors from other states supplied much of the home market! The average daily wages of all coal mine employees was $3.01 per day in 1904; 28,335 gallons of illuminating oil were consumed, and 23 mines using blasting powder used up 65,163 kegs, averaging 5,430 kegs of powder per mine. The aggregate of coal mined in Michigan was 1,414,834 tons at an aggregate cost of $2,286,160.21 or $1.62 per ton.

  The wage scale agreed on in 1904 runs to March 31, 1906, and provides that pick miners shall receive 91 cents for each ton from a 30-inch vein, 96 cents for a 27 inch vein, and $1.01 for 24 to 27 inch veins. The ton is 2,000 pounds, over a 7/8 diamond or flat bar screen, 14 feet in length with 72 feet superficial area. Exact scales for narrow work and room turning are provided.. Bottom cagers, drivers, trip riders, water and machine haulers, timber-men and track-layers receive $2.65; pipe-men, $2.36; trappers, $1.06; greasers, $1.18; all other inside day labor, $2.23; company men in long wall mines, $2.23. Outside day labor for eight hours: Dumpers and trimmers, $2.23; engineers, $2.65, carpenter, $2.55, check chasers, $1.32; firemen, $1.91, and the same amount for all other outside labor. A special schedule per ton is provided for chain machine mining and the punching machines, loading and drilling being 53 and 52 ½ cents per ton, respectively, cutting and shearing in proportion.

  Since this scale is in force, with practical adaptations to local conditions, in all the bituminous districts of the country, the cost of mining the coal should not operate against Bay County coal, hence the discrimination must be in the transportation cost and facilities.

  The Wenona mine is now putting in a electric hauling system, and there the frolicking days of the timorous mine mule are numbered! The boys will miss his antics, but will breath easier, when they hear a coal car approaching, for like his cousin, the army mule, the mine mule has fits of bad temper, when he kicks recklessly at everything and everybody, tears around and balks alternately, and more than one driver and miner has gone to his last reward under the sudden impression of a mulish hoof. The Wenona mine in 1904 employed 150 miners, 80 day men, 10 trappers and 46 machine men. The manager is E.B. Foss and superintendent. James Gallagher. The What Cheer mine is a shaft opening 196 feet deep; shaft 8 by 18 feet in the clear; gauge of mine track, 40 inches; coal vein, three feet thick and of fine quality. The rooms have just been driven; 20 miners and 10 day men are employed. The Michigan mine has an air inlet of 19,800 cubic feet per minute, employ 92 miners, 32 day men, three trappers and eight machine men. Frank P. Young is manager, and Sam Wormeldorf, superintendent. The Central mine employees 75 miners, 25 day men, two trappers and 10 machine men. George Waller is manager. Wolverine mine No. 3 is one of the best in the country, having just put in a new electric light plant, new boilers, new guides in hoisting shaft, new cages and a new motor to haul coal to pit bottom. Fire wiped out all above the ground recently but the buildings are being put up again as quickly as possible. The working force is composed of 126 miners, 30 day men, three trappers and seven machine men. R.M. Randall is manager and Alex McElwin superintendent. Wolverine mine No. 2 has increased hopper and otherwise improved mine capacity; employs 127 miners, 30 day men, three trappers, and 60 machine men. The Pittsburg mine has 61 miners and 28 day men; John Werner is manager. The Bay mine is one of the most reliable in Bay County; employs 78 miners, 31 day men, four trappers and 14 machine men; M.L. Davies is manager. The Hecla mine shut down in October 1903, pending a settlement of the legal troubles of that million dollar concern, and is expected to reopen in 1905. The United City mine reached coal, within the West Side city limits August 26, 1904; the shaft is 6 feet 8 inches by 14 feet; with a depth of 142 feet; the coal vein is nearly six feet thick. At present 60 day men are employed,. John Walsh is manager and David Jones, superintendent. The Coryell mine has 180 miners, 67 day men and eight trappers. Charles Coryell is manager and Elias Mathews, superintendent. The old Valley or Dutch Creek mine is now being operated by one of the pioneers of the coal mine business of Bay County, Frank Zagelmeyer, with 29 miners and 10 clay diggers. He found an excellent quality of clay for making brick in the mine shaft; and so conceived the idea of digging clay and coal in conjunction, organizing the Michigan Vitrified Brick Company, which will furnish the brick for all of Bay City’s paving this coming summer. This venture may open a new field for our coal mine operators. Alexander Zagelmeyer the original pioneer coal mine operator, has a fine mine in the Salzburg, employing 80 miners, 23 day men and one trapper. He caters particularly to home consumption of his output, although he has excellent railroad facilities besides, and is gradually increasing the output of the mine. He is a prominent figure at all councils between the well organized coal miners of District No. 24. United Mine Workers, and the coal operators, and has always succeeded in settling on terms mutually satisfactory, all differences, due to new conditions and accidents of the coal strata. The two short strikes in the district have been due to a desire on the part of the operators to make sure that their interests were at least as well protected as those of other operators in the same competitive field and the determination of the miners to improve their living conditions, wherever possible.

  While the mining in Bay County is not surrounded by the dangers of other coal fields, the deadly mine gas being entirely absent here, still accidents are numerous. On December 29, 1903, John Simmons, aged 35, single, was killed at Wolverine mine No. 2, by falling rock. On January 16,1904, Thomas Brown, aged 25, single,. Was killed by a premature explosion at wenona mine. On May 14, 1904, Fred Serva, aged 28, married, was similarly killed at Wolverine mine No 2. On October 26l, 1904, William Western, aged 42, married was killed at Wolverine mine No 3, by falling slate. A dozen miners were injured by similar causes, though not fatally. Andrew Stevens, State mine inspector, reports all mines having mine ventilators, driving the fans at a speed insuring at least 100 cubic feet of air for each miner per minute, and the air is well distributed through all the entries.

  The lack of cars for shipping was keenly felt by the industry, especially in Bay County, and the output was curtailed on this account. These mines are now seriously considering the transportation problem on which so much of their future business is dependent. Chicago imported and consumed 11,000,000 tons of coal in 1904, and with cheap water transportation all the way should be as good a market for Bay County coal, as it once was the best customer for our lumber. More outside markets and more home consumption will be necessary for the future development of our coal industry, and strong efforts should be made at once for secure iron and metal industries, that will go hand in hand with our coal industry. Certain it is, that with three to six feet of coal right under our feet, the cheap fuel problem has been solved for Bay County for all time.

  The Legislature early provided for the regulation of the coal mines, and the protection of the lives of the coal miners. Act No. 57, Public Acts of 1899, provides: I, For a mine inspector, at $1,500 per year; II, That escape shafts must not be less than eight feet square; III, That a competent and trustworthy engineer shall attend to the hoisting devices, IV; That safety catches and covers be on all cages, which can carry but 10 men at once, and then only when the other cage is empty; V, That employees name the weigh-man; VI, Operators held responsible for safety of mines, and fresh air supplies, VII, Imposes the penalties for violations of these safeguards, and set forth the rights and duties of the State mine inspector. The Legislature of 1905 is now considering some minor additions to this act, providing for uniformity of these safe-guards at all mines. Since the Bay City mines are not very deep, their safeguarding is easily assured. Verily:

Down the broad vale of tears afar

The spectral camp is fled;

Faith shineth as a morning star,

Our ghastly fears are dead!

TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES

All our natural resources–lumber, salt, coal and agricultural products–are dependent for their fullest development upon a ready means of transportation from forest and field and prairie, to the factory and workshop and the finished product from the scene of their manufacture, to the markets of the world.

  Father Marquette, sailing along the western shore of Lake Huron, followed the wide reaches of Saginaw Bay, until a great, wide river poured its flood from the south, and invited them to “O-Sauk-e-non,” the “Land of the Sauks” or Sacs, as they are called in these later days. The explorations of this devoted Jesuit are not well preserved, the findings of the first white men to visit these shores but vaguely outlined, in the musty records of long ago. But the great river, with its black forest of pines, and the crowded wigwams of the Indians in some pretty groves, where solemn councils were held with the fed men, some weeks before reaching Mackinaw can have been none other than our own.

  The other rivers that pour their floods into Lake Huron from the south and west are incomparable to the deep and wide flood of the Saginaw. The earliest inland trading stations in Michigan were on its banks and the first villages and permanent settlements north of Detroit are in this valley. The easy mode of travel by canoe and bark to and from Detroit, and between the several settlements on its southern forks and branches, proved early the pathway of the primitive commerce and trading of Central Michigan.

  In 1792 the relatives of Louis Trombley reported to the military Governor at Detroit, that this Indian trader and two of his coasting vessels had been lost somewhere near the mouth of the river of the Sacs! The “Savage,” a 40 ton sloop, about 1830 sailed in and out of the Saginaw in search of fur and trade with the Indians. In 1832 a 50-ton vessel brought freight for the American Fur Company, and carried a load of potatoes from Duncan MacClellan’s, far above the sand-bar, to Detroit, the first export of farm produce from this valley. In August, 1837, George Raby sailed the “Nothth America” into the river, and for years traded with his schooner up and down the river and bay shore. The “Conneaut Packet,” sailed by Capt. J.Davis Smith, carried the first cargo of lumber for the McCormicks to Detroit in 1842. This boat together with Captain Wilson’s little schooner “Mary,” were both driven by storms on the Canadian shore and wrecked shortly after.

  In July, 1836, While Judge Miller, James Fraser and Surveyor Eliazer Jewett were dining at Leon Trombley’s log house, where Fourth avenue and Water street now intersect, the company were startled by 10 year-old Louis Trombley rushing into the little shack, shouting; “A steamboat, a steamboat!” Judge Miller often recalled how they hurried outside to see what had deceived the boy into thinking a steamboat was coming. To their great astonishment and delight it really was the steamer “Governor Marcy,” chartered by Mr. Jennison and others of the city above the sand bar. Mr. Jennison was the father of Charles E. Jennison, who in this very year 1905 is assisting, with his sons, in again securing regular steamer connection with Detroit and the shore cities. Such is the flight of time, with its recurring cycles in the lives of men! The Governor Marcy” proudly made headway against a southern wind, and was the first steamer to plow the waters of this river.

  In 1847, James Fraser, the Fitzhughs and others built the stern-wheeler “Buena Vista,” somewhat on the Ohio River style, the first one to be built on this river, and for many years thereafter this boat did a thriving business along the river and its navigable tributaries, Orrin Kinney, still living on Cass avenue, was her first engineer!

  About 1850 the steamer “Columbia” began making weekly trips between here and Detroit, the fug “Lathrop: began towing on the river; Capt. Darius Cole brought the “Snow,” and “Charter;” Captain Wolverton ran the steamer, “Fox,” after 1854, and soon the river was alive with craft of all descriptions. We had the timber and the mills, but not until plenty of boats for shipping the product of the mills were at hand did the lumber industry assume its final large proportions.

  In 1858 captain Cole established the shore line to Alpena with the steamer “Columbia.,” Later the “Metropolis, “”Arundell” and “Saginaw Valley” made this route, while the “L.G. Mason” and “W.R. Burt” came here in 1868, for the river passenger traffic. The writer has enjoyed many trips on all these boats between 1883 and 1893, and witnessed the destruction of the L.G. Mason by fire about 1890 near the Lafayette avenue bridge.

  The river and lake craft underwent continual changes and improvements, and it is indeed a far cry from the original “Buena Vista” to the monster “Sylvania” just launched on these self-same waters!

  Old mariners will recall the foundering of the side-wheeler “Dove” near the mouth of the river, where she stranded, and will recall the familiar names of the river craft about 1885: Steamers “metropolis,” “Dunlap,” “E.T. Carrington,” “Luther Westover,” “Emerald,” “Sea Gull,” “Handy Boy,” “Plow Boy,” “Post Boy” “Arundell,” “Forbes”! They were the means of transportation then where today are the electric cars and vestibuled trains. Thus early the steam-barges “Donaldson,” “Sanilac,” “Benton” and their barges carried their lumber cargoes to Ohio ports, just as they did in 1904. But they are the few survivors of that immense fleet that handled Bay City’s monster lumber shipments for 30 years and which annually wintered here, furnishing employment and business to many men and merchants.

  The propellers of deep draught were not long in locating a sand-bar at the mouth of the river, where the great stream had deposited the sediment of the lowlands for untold ages. In 1867 the work of dredging this deposit was commenced and finished in 1869. Many river improvements have been made since then, and lake vessels of the deepest draught can now enter this river. In 1905, the great steam-barges laden with salt and coal find no trouble in loading here, and the way to the outside world is made easy for them.

  In July, 1839 Capt. Stephen Wolverton arrived to build for the government the first lighthouse, near the mouth of the river on the west shore.

And on its outer point some miles away,

The Light house lifts its massive masonry,

A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.

And as the evening darkens, lo! How bright,

Through the deep purple of the twilight air,

Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light

With strange, unearthly splendor in the glare!

And the great ships sail outward and return,

Bending and bowing o’vr the billowy swells,

And ever joyful, as they see it butn,

They wave their silent welcomes and farewells.

Longfellow.

  The light house, built more than 60 years ago, has ever been a conspicuous landmark at the harbor entrance. The snow-white, slanting sides reflect the rays of the sun, and are visible for miles by day. A more modern lighthouse with stronger reflectors was built some 20 years later, and guards today the entrance to the river, a little south by west of the original beacon light. The old house has since served as a home for the light keeper. In March, 1905, an order came to demolish the old beacon light, and contracts have already been let for a more modern home for the light keeper. Hardly did the remaining pioneers hear of the order for demolition, when they petitioned congressman Loud, on the committee of naval affairs, to preserve the beloved old landmark, and efforts are now being made in Washington to save the structure. A buoy system was later introduced so that deep draught steamers would not go too far toward the Kawkawlin, which swift running stream is also ever busy carrying down the sediments gathered along its banks. The fact that not one single wreck with loss of life or property has taken place there for 30 years or more speaks well for the fine harbor facilities, and easy accessibility of Bay City by our lake craft. The “Sylvania,” greatest craft of the great Lakes, launched a few weeks ago by the west Bay City Ship Building company, will have no trouble in sailing smoothly out of this natural harbor. A pity ‘tis, that more ships of commerce are not made to find profitable the navigation of this harbor and river, so blessed by Nature.

  One of the first results of the organization of Bay County in 1857, was the building of permanent roadways to the heart of the local timber belt, and the farm communities in the scattered clearing. Under the supervision of Gen, B.F. Partridge, James Fraser, William McEwan, and the Christopher Heinzmann, this plank road was begun in 1859 and completed in 1860. Then the Bay City and Midland plank road was undertaken in 1866 and completed to the county line in 1868. Mercer & Hotchkiss built a small sawmill at Spicer’s Corner for cutting the plank for this road. The Kawkawlin plank road and the State road to Saginaw on the West Side opened up new territory for settlement, and proved a boon to the early settlers.

  On May 29,1882, the electors of Bay County voted in favor of bonding for $100,000, at 5 percent interest for building macadamized stone roads. In 1883, the stone road committee had built two miles on the Kawkawlin road, two miles on the Frankenlust road, five miles of the Midland road, and five miles on the Cass River road. Since then these roads have been gradually extended in every direction, reaching the Saginaw County line both east and west of the river, Tuscoia county to the east and southeast, Midland on the west, and the latest addition are to the north, toward Arenac.

  There is not a county in Michigan that has done as much for permanent roadways as has Bay County, and the results have been commensurate. Farmers residing beyond the county lines to the east, west and south, bring their product to market in Bay City, because the find good roads, whatever the season. This has been an especial boon for the sugar beet and chicory, industry and the people have never regretted the money so spent. It costs considerable to keep these roads in good repair, and an immense stone roller was bought by the board in 1904 to crush the hardheads for resurfacing. Heretofore limestone has been used, but experience proves that these soft stones are crushed into powder, which is blown away. The townships have caught the spirit of good roads, and one can now travel in any direction from Bay City over miles and miles of the best possible country roads. The floods of 1904 and the deep snow of last winter brought up some new problems. Open wire fences are recommended along public highways to avoid snow drifts, and the drainage system will be improved to meet even such high water marks as were reached in 1904. Much of Bay County’s progress in agriculture and laud improvement is directly due to our fine stone road system.

  By 1865 the fine waterway and planned roadways hardly sufficed to meet the growing demands of these booming lumber towns, and the citizens, headed again by James Fraser and Judge James Birney, moved to get railroad connection. The Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad Company was given a land grant of alternate sections by Congress June 3, 1856, which action was ratified by Michigan February 15, 1857, and in October 1858, the first grading was done below Flint.

  In 1864 Judge Birney drafted, and had passed by the Legislature, an act authorizing Bay County to bond for $75,000 toward aiding the construction of a railroad between here and Saginaw on the east side of the river. The swamp extending from our southern city limits almost to the limits of Saginaw, seemed an impassible barrier byt Algernon S. Munger secured a dredge, made a canal along the route as now used, throwing the subsoil on the road-bed, which made a good surface and in that manner overcame Nature’s worst obstacle to entering Bay City along the river front from the south.

  On Saturday morning, November 23, 1867, the first excursion train came down from Saginaw and an November 26^th the citizens celebrated the opening of the railroad with a big banquet at the Fraser, where Mr. Munger was presented with a $350 watch and chain, as a token of appreciation of his work in securing the road.

  On January 1, 1867, the Jackson Division of the Michigan Central Railroad was completed as far as the West Side. Henry W. Sage, D.H. and Charles C. Fitzhugh were mainly instrumental in securing this road thus early for the West Side. As we view the great traffic yards, magnificent depots and busy roundhouses, with the hundreds of men finding employment on this road in 1905, we can not help but appreciate the good work of those early business men, and the good judgment of the railroad management in selecting this point for the southern terminal of the Mackinaw Division and the Gladwin Branch, and for the northern terminal of the Detroit and Jackson divisions. The Detroit Division was completed in 1873 and is 108 miles long.

  The Michigan Central Railroad bridge was built across the river here in 1873, and in April 1905, is being replaced by a more substantial and modern structure. The feat of placing the new structure without causing more than a few hours interruption of traffic was accomplished by placing the new structure on pile frames to the right, with similar pile frames to the left of the piers. When everything was ready the old bridge was moved bodily onto the left piles, and the new structure moved bodily and speedily onto the permanent piers. But six hours were required to do this work, and it is considered quite an engineering feat.

  Thus we find, that while the Pere Marquette has all its main depots, offices, shops and traffic yards in the city above the sand bar, the Michigan Central has all similar institutions for employing labor and handling its traffic, in Bay City, East and West Side.

  When things looked gloomiest for Bay County, the Michigan Central opened the Midland Branch, making a rich farming country tributary to this city. When the coal industry was being tried out, it was the same road that offered every encouragement to the operators. This road has been instrumental in locating more than one manufacturing institution at this deep water harbor thereby increasing its own business, but incidentally also helping the development of the city and county.

  For many years the Michigan Central Depot at Bay City has been one of the finest in the country, containing all the traffic offices for the several divisions centering here. The freight house on the river bank, at the foot of First street, are most conveniently located and vary spacious. The belt line is another great convenience for freight shippers, and offers some fine sites for new industries.

  The Pere Marquette Railroad completed its handsome passenger station Jefferson avenue in 1904, after compelling the city to close Fourth avenue from Adams street to Madison avenue. The old rookery across the way was used as a depot by Bay City for 39 years, during 20 of which the people insisted in vain that it was not in keeping with the other advances in the city. The old freight sheds are still in use on Adams street, but these, too, are to be replaced this very year by new and modern structures.

  The shore line railroad, projected as early as 1882, became a reality in 1897, when the Detroit & Mackinac Railway was built from here to Alpena, via Pinconning, Turner, Twining, Omer, East Tawas, Tawas City, Au Sable, Harrisville and Black River. In 1904 this road was extended to Cheboygan, whose citizens celebrated the event by a monster excursion to Bay City, and later entertained the business men of this city in a most hospitable manner in the city of the large pulp paper-mill and mammoth tanneries. The road is steadily pushing northward to the Straits of Mackinac and will soon be in a position to handle much of the Upper Peninsula traffic. It connects with the Pere Marquette at Bay City, and another fine field has been opened for the enterprise of our local merchants and industries.

  The Lake shore pine barrens have been found to possess many good qualities for grazing and orchards; and even good farms are springing up, where 10 years ago every one thought nothing but pine timber would grow. As this vast territory to the north becomes more thickly settled, electric inter-urban lines are sure to connect them still closer with the metropolis of Northern Michigan Central and Detroit & Mackinac, and still more is promised in that line in 1905.

  Bay city is the northern terminal of the Cincinnati, Saginaw & Mackinaw Railroad, now owned and controlled by the Grand Trunk system, thus offering ideal connections for Chicago, Canada and the East. For some years this road has been planning to enter the east Side, its depot now being situated on Williams and Midland streets. West Side, and is popularly known to the traveling public as the Grand Trunk road. Its lines extend to Wenona Beach, handling much of the coal output of the mines in that locality. The road is planning to run its tracks into the beautiful summer resort, whose enclosure they now skirt, and make a specialty of bringing excursions from all over the State to this “Little Coney Island” of Central Michigan.

  Another new steam road is assured over the much desired “Thumb” route, – Bay City to Port Huron, via, Caro and Cass City. Another is being boomed from Bay city to Detroit, via Vassar, Lapeer and Pontiac. The vast amount of sugar beets shipped annually, and the bright prospects of the coal industry of the valley, offer splendid inducements for these additional transportation projects.

  The inter-urban electric line from Bay City to Detroit, via Saginaw, Flint, Pontiac and Birmingham, will be completed this summer. The branch between here and Saginaw via Zilwaukee and Carrollton has been in operation for some years, and a splendid bridge takes it from the West Side to the East Side just south of the North American Chemical Company’s plant. In its official report to the Secretary of state, it reports 36 miles of track on this branch, much of it double, employs 220 men and carried 4,059,632 passengers in 1904. The fare to Detroit is now $3.26, but the electric line will carry passengers through, when completed, in almost the same length of time, for $2. The value of these inter-urban lines to rural districts can not be overestimated, and Bay City does not want to stand idle while new lines are being projected and built. Efforts should speedily be made to open up the settled district to our north, not yet touched by any railroad, and let the motto be here, as in our fine stone road system, “THAT ALL GOOD ROADS LEAD TO BAY CITY.”

  The river is our natural highway, and industries should be crowed on its entire 15 miles of deep-water channels and many docks, left by the desertion of the lumber industry. Railroad competition builds up communities, and should be encouraged. The coal industry should get better and cheaper car service. The Inter-State Commerce Commission might look into the charge of local railroad discrimination with profit to all concerned. Our fine stone road system must be sustained and enlarged continually, until not one mile of our fine farming district is left untouched. New steam and electric roads should bear in mind that Bay city is by nature and endeavor the metropolis of Northern Michigan.

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