Ludington-based short line The
Mason and Oceana was originally built by the Butters family, at a cost of $178,000, to help exploit the old-growth
timber resources of this part of Michigan. The M&O's service area, in southeastern Mason County and northern Oceana County, lacked the rivers used in other parts of Michigan to transport heavy logs to sawmills. Instead of water transport, the M&O allowed local loggers to have logs transported to the
Butters & Peters Salt and Lumber Company sawmill at
Buttersville, across the
Pere Marquette Lake from
Ludington. The settlement around the sawmill was founded by the company, hence the name The railroad was chartered as a common carrier in 1887, which meant that it operated a public passenger service. The first section of 21 miles (34 km) opened in the same year, southeast to near
Crystal Valley. In the following year, workers extended the line to a location named
Stetson, 27 miles (43.5 km) from Buttersfield. This terminus was to rename itself
Walkerville in 1898. The
Mason and Oceana initiated expansion plans to extend its common carrier line to
Hesperia in 1901, but the extension was never completed. In stages, it reached Goodrich at 32 miles (51.5 km) (not to be confused with the
Goodrich, Michigan located in
Genesee County). The common carrier service got no further. At its peak, the railroad operated on a main line that ran southeastward from its sawmill hub, which was located at a point on the other side of the river estuary from
Ludington. This meant that the Mason & Oceana was an isolated line with no connection between it and the wider railroad network of Michigan. From Buttersville, the route ran southeast with passenger stops at Riverton, Wiley, Fern, Peachville,
Crystal Valley (the station was to the east of the settlement), Lake, Walkerville, Goodrich and the railhead at Maple (also known as Maple Range, and called
Beaver in 1909). After the first-growth timber resources of the
Mason and Oceana service area had been exhausted, there was no longer any reason for the tiny railroad to continue in operation for its entire length. The line from Walkerville to Maple Range was abandoned in 1906, The new company bought out the entire stock of the
Mason and Oceana (under common carrier law, the railroad company had to be legally separate from the
Butters & Peters lumber company) for $300,000 in February 1908, and immediately abandoned the line from Wiley to Walkerville. It began converting and grading the route from Wiley, and 8 miles had been completed to Crystal Valley by the following year. In August 1909, a fire destroyed the lumber company
sawmill and that was the end of any log-hauling operations on the truncated line. Unfortunately, the GR&N scheme then failed and the remaining
rails were scavenged for
scrap in 1912. ==See also==