1890's Railroad Carfloat Service across Pere Marquette Lake

[Guest]

Some tidbits from the papers:


February 15, 1905

December 1906

March 24, 1934

[Mr Link]

Thanks to both of you for the additional information. The history of the railroad that I referred to in the initial post mentioned the following vessel were used at various times for the Buttersville to Ludington passenger ferry service, which often ran every 45 minutes during the day: Maude Lilly, Helen Scott, Helen Taylor, Sprite, and the Ralph M. Cooper. And of course it mentions the freighter Marshall F. Butters.

[William Lafferty]

September through December 1895 the excursion steamer Rhocean (D. Y. Williams of South Haven its designer, builder, and owner, as well as designer and builder of its steam engine and unique water tube boiler) was contracted by Butters & Peters to tow two 100-foot scows upon which tracks were mounted and upon each track was mounted a loaded flat car, hopper car, or box car destined for Buttersville. The cars were standard gauge brought from the F&PMRRCo, and unloaded at Buttersville with supplies and coal for the mill and community where a standard gauge track had been built. Rhocean also transported mill crews and was originally brought to Pere Marquette Lake as a ferry between the Seymour dock at Ludington and Buttersville. In 1895 (according to Williams, which may be apocryphal) Rhocean travelled 6000 miles those three months, running 5:40 AM to 9:30 PM, and carrying 15000 passengers. Rhocean remained on Pere Marquette Lake for the following season but I don't know for certain if the car float operation continued. By 1897 it was on the Mona Lake route at Muskegon and began its career on Pine Lake between Charlevoix and Boyne City, May 1898 to August 1904. I've been fascinated by Rhocean for years.

[Guest]

Newspaper articles say they had a company boat called "The Sprite" that ran as a ferry across the harbor. They had the scow you mentioned that held four rail cars and would tie up next to the PM ferries to transfer its load of farm produce to the ferries for shipment to Milwaukee. And they had a freighter named Marshall F Butters that sank near Southeast Shoals, Lake Erie, in the Black Friday storm - October 20, 1916 - which took four vessels and 50 men. It sounded like quite an ordeal, but all 13 crew survived with the exception of the fireman's dog.

[Mr Link]

Is anyone aware of any photos or additional sources of information on a carfloat operation across Pere Marquette Lake operated by the narrow gauge Mason and Oceana Railroad? It was apparently started in the 1890's and served two basic functions: to provide access for standard gauge railroad cars to salt warehouses and sawmills in Buttersville, and carried narrow gauge boxcars of produce to Ludington where the produce was manually transferred to Pere Marquette boats to take to Wisconsin. They used at least one scow that could carry four railroad cars.

The only mention of this operation i have ever seen is in The "Mason and Osceana Railroad" history by Robert Garasha in the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society bulletin No 89 (November 1953). I would of course like to find any additional information that may be out there.

Attached is an excerpt from a 1904 nautical chart showing tracks in both Buttersville and Ludington.