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Issue 1465 April 22, 2012
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Interurban car that had been wrecked is viewed by gawkers in photo from Fred Dustin collection.

INTERURBAN REMEMBERED: Electric Rail Line Connected Bay City With Downstate

November 24, 2014       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Robert Trudell is one of the few Bay Cityans who wrote his observations of a transportation mode from days gone by -- the Interurban.

And, Fred Dustin of Saginaw is perhaps the only historian who photographically documented the Interurban, along with many other historical attractions in the area.

Trudell's recollections are posted by Marv Kusmierz on Bay-Journal.com and paint a picture of olden times in the Saginaw Valley:

"In 1895 another form of intercity transit excited Bay City -- the interurban, all-electric line to Saginaw and connecting there with lines to Flint, Detroit and other cities. These overgrown streetcars operated on electric rails though much of southern Michigan from the turn of the century to the pulsating Roaring '20s."

Kusmierz notes that Trudell was living in Cheboygan when he wrote about the Interurban, but the time period of his writings is undetermined.

Trudell describes the crossing over the Saginaw River, concrete footings for which still exist and are visible from boats on the river passing to and from Saginaw:

"The interurban offered stiff competition for railroad passenger traffic as trips could be made at almost any hour day or night -- with the added convenience of earlier return as there were more frequent runs. The route went through south Bay City on the east side, then crossed the river near the present municipal airport, and passed through Zilwaukee and Carrollton."

Rare photographs taken by Fred Dustin, noted Saginaw historian of the first part of the 20th century, show interurban cars and even wreck scenes. The Dustin photos are part of his collection acquired from the Dustin estate by Ray Nagy, local archaeologist who helped catalog findings at the Fletcher Site in the 1960s.

Avram Golden of the Golden Gallery on Third Street has scanned the Nagy/Dustin collection and cooperated with MyBayCity.com in furnishing the photo for this article.

Bay-journal.com continues the Trudell recollections:

"Once touted as the successor to passenger trains, the interurban grew locally in the 1890s and early 1900s to be the main form of moving people. Then the interurban died suddenly after World War I, a victim of the automobile, trucks and buses as the new people-mover.

"The interurban exists today only in pictures and memories. The tracks are long gone, paved under by widened roads. Here and there an old-timer can point to a field or the decaying foundations of a long-gone bridge to show were the interurbans once clattered along.

"Riding on one was much like the experience on a fast clacking trolley car. In the country, conductors could get the speed up to 80 miles per hour, but a safer 60 was closer to the normal operations.

"Saginaw actually saw its first interurban in 1894, as the brainchild of Isaac Bearinger. It started downtown, ran to the west side, to Carrollton and Zilwaukee, and expanded within a year to Bay City.

"Over the years the line expanded south to Frankenmuth Junction, Birch Run, Clio, Mount Morris, Flint and Detroit. In further expansion, lines led to Ann Arbor, Lansing, Jackson and Kalamazoo.

"Interurbans were soon known for their infamous 'third rail,' a highly-charged, upraised band of steel that paralleled one sided of the track. One former interurban employee comments, 'When they got the juice, they were gone. Twenty minutes after leaving Saginaw, they were taking the shoe off in Bay City.'

"In cities, the interurban wooden coaches singled with trolley cars, using overhead trolley lines for their power. In the country, they lowered a metal arm on the side of each coach to electrified third rail, charged with up to 1,200 volts.

"Old-timers remember they were warned to stay away from the deadly third rail which was an explosive issue for years as safety experts cited the hazard to both animals and humans. In fact, there were numerous casualties over the years, especially among animals. A valued horse touched its nose to one once and was instantly killed, causing an uproar.

"Where the interurban went past ponds and rivers, kids would feed copper wire into the stream, then drop it on the exposed third rail. 'The fish would float belly up,' said one."

News reports tell how tragedy stalked this electric line in the late 1890s, when a car crowded with travelers plunged through the open swing bridge into the Saginaw River, immediately south of the present municipal airport on River Road. The bridge had swung to let a vessel through. Thirteen died in the crash of the speeding interurban, and many were injured. Another crash south of Frankenmuth in 1924 injured a number of persons.

A woman and her three children who died in that accident are buried together at Elm Lawn Cemetery and are often noted on historical tours.

Saginawians frequently rode the Bay City bound interurban to Zilwaukee or even beyond to go ice fishing on the Saginaw River. The trip home was often smelly as the men sat near the stove at one end of the car to get warm, hanging onto their flour sacks full of perch. And they weren't always welcomed by the other travelers.

Harriet Gustin Campbell, longtime historical maven in Bay City, reminisced to Les Arndt, Bay City Times historian:

"The interurban cars to Saginaw, Flint or Detroit often were the least expensive means of travel. They were large, noisy and bumpy, but they took you to your destination, picking up and discharging passengers along the way."

The system grew in popularity as World War I came on, but ran into difficulties during and just after the war. Labor problems, four costly strikes, higher costs and a blaze that destroyed 33 cars in the barn at Buena Vista all took their toll between 1919 and 1921. The transit service went into bankruptcy that year. The system was revived in 1923 with reduced service.

The interurban line between Bay City and Detroit continued runs until 1929, Trudell recalled: "Some persons might recall when the interurban had heavy use in the football rivalry between Bay City Eastern and Saginaw Eastern High Schools. When the Saginaw team played here, the Saginaw "rooters" mostly arrived by interurban and as they alighted at Center and Washington, they would be pelted by a heavy barrage of sugar beets thrown by the Bay City newsboys, who had filled their bags with these "sweets." And Saginaw was usually equally rough, too, when hosting the Bay City pigskin faithful.

"Competition from the jitney buses, mostly like cracker boxes on wheels, was entirely too much for the interurban as ridership shrunk. The system's 41 cars, some of which had cost $12,000 when new, were sold for a total of $446 as diners, hamburger stands, chicken coups and even beer gardens after repeal of Prohibition."

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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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