Station: Pentwater, MI

Pentwater was settled about 1849 and a saw mill was established here about 1853. The town was called Middlesex and then Pent Water. It became a village in 1867 and was renamed Pentwater in 1894. [MPN]

Pentwater was the northern terminus of the Pere Marquette branch line which came north from Muskegon via Shelby.

Photo Info: Top, Pere Marquette locomotive 23 pulling a passenger train is ready to leave the Pentwater Depot in the early 1900's. 2nd photo, the Pere Marquette passenger train crew poses for a photograph in front of the Pentwater depot. [Alan Loftis collection]. 3rd photo, a postcard view of downtown Pentwater. The PM depot is in the foreground along with lumber stacked on the edge of the river. [Alan Loftis collection]

Notes

Time Line

1933. January. The ICC grants PM permission to abandon the railroad from Mears to Pentwater, leaving the village of Pentwater without rail service in over 60 years. Residents had petitioned for compensation from the railroad because residents had subscribed $50,000 toward construction of the road  when it was built. The railroad had been built in 1872 from Muskegon. The new terminus at Hart got its track from Mears as a spur line. For over 50 years, Pentwater saw the arrival and departure of two passenger trains each way along with heavy freight shipments. A ferry was used to bring passengers and freight to the north side of Pentwater Lake. The wooden ferry was a scow operated by manpower on a wire cable stretched across the channel. A bridge was built in 1926. [LDN-1933-0122]