Location: Johannesburg, MI - Crapo Lake & Northwestern Railroad

The Crapo Lake & Northwestern Railroad was built in 1882 and was located in Charlton Township in the southeast corner of Otsego County, west of Lewiston. (Section 24 of T25N-R2W).

This was a standard gauge railroad which was 8 miles long with 30 lb. steel rails. It had many branches into forest holdings and dumped logs into Crapo Lake. The log were eventually floated down the AuSable River to mills at AuSable.

Notes

This railroad was owned by Gratwick, Smith & Fryer Lumber Company. [[NWL-1885] The railroad was about five miles south of Johannesburg, which was the largest nearby townsite.

Time Line

1885. The railroad dumped logs into Crapo Lake. The road had two Baldwin locomotives (14 and 20 tons), 20 Russel cars, and was able to reach speeds of 25 mph. [NWL-1885]