Jul
My recent Seneca Lake post has spurred quite a debate as to the origins of both the lake, the causeway that crosses it, and the purpose of both. In relation to that discussion I brought up the abandoned boiler that sits not far from the lake alongside the Gratiot River. I had postulated that it could have been part of a logging camp, which might have dictated the need for a rail spur and thus the construction of the causeway. Others have dismissed that theory, and I tend to agree. But the boiler was there for some reason, and I thought I’d show off a few photos of the thing to help everyone try to figure out why its where it is and if it had anything to do with Seneca Lake.
The boiler in question sits about a half mile north-west of the lake itself, at the end of an old two-track which begins its journey just across the street from the Seneca Lake causeway. I had always thought the two were connected in some way, but there’s no way that connection was in the form of a rail spur. The turn from the causeway back up the trail I’m talking about is just to tight for any railroad to maneuver – no matter how narrow its gauge. But the location of this trail right across from the causeway seems to convenient to be sheer coincidence. I still believe they’re connected in some way.
Though most of its mass is shrouded by an immense amount of foliage that envelops it, the boiler’s massive scale is still easily discernible and is rather impressive to behold. This looks to be a locomotive style boiler, which would be the same type of boiler mounted on steam engines. But while most other boilers we have found seem to come from much smaller gauged trains, this puppy sure looks like it could have come straight off of a standard gauge loco.
The boiler sits right alongside the Gratiot River – only a few feet from the rivers edge – with its smoke box end facing the water. Normally a small stack would have protruded up from the top of this end of the boiler. The stack is missing but the exit hole still remains.
The boiler sits atop a concrete foundation, which makes me think it was a semi-permanent installation. But there were no signs of any other type of foundation nearby, as if the boiler itself was simply mounted out here on just these concrete pedestals with no other building surrounding – or protecting – it.
Peaking into the large opening apparently cut into the front of the smokebox we find an array of openings that lead into the boiler’s collection of fire tubes. Hot gasses from the firebox would travel through these pipes before exiting here at the smokebox and exiting up the stack. The pipes themselves pass through the water tank, where they transform the water into steam.
Making our way back aft towards the fire box we noticed a few details protruding up from the boiler’s top, starting with a pair of these guys. These guys look to be fill valves (to fill the water tank with water I would suppose), but I guess they could also be some type of relief valve (with the actual valve mechanism missing).
In between those two valves was this guy, which I believe was once home to the tanks steam dome. I believe that steam from inside the boiler would collect up here before being siphoned off to the engines drive pistons – if this was still attached to a train that is.
Finally we arrive at the boiler’s business end – the firebox. In actuality the trail come up to this end of the boiler first, but since its heavily draped in foliage its rather hard to see at first. The smokebox is much more evident up at the other end. There’s three openings cut into this end of the boiler. The bottom two are the openings through which you would load the firebox with coal, but the doors themselves are missing. The hole at top is a mystery, though its position makes me think it had something to do with the water tank. Those various openings within the center of the boiler’s face is another mystery – one that becomes even more odd when you take a peek inside.
Looking up through the firebox door I could make out the openings into the fire tubes set up against the back wall, which was to be expected. But I also found two other odd things that weren’t so expected. The first of those was a line of red bricks that were placed along the top of the box, the other was the line of steel tubes making their way up from the bottom of the firebox and out its front. These tubes were connected to those lines of openings we saw in the boiler’s front facade. Since they’re not open to the fire box they can’t be fire tubes, and I doubt they’re are water tubes since they exit out the front of the boiler. I suppose they could have been used to draw air into the boiler, but since they don’t exit into the firebox I’m not sure where that air was going (to the smokebox perhaps?).
Perhaps some of you boiler/locomotive experts out there can fill in the blanks….
Here’s a last look at the boiler in its entirety. The firebox sits in the front and the smokebox in the back. The Gratiot river runs just to the upper-right of this drawing. The concrete base on which the boiler sits just supports the firebox and smokebox portions, not the rest. In the front the concrete base extends past the front of the firebox, and creates a type of alcove you can stand in.
I’m not sure why this guy is here. Its position far outside the beaten path makes me think a logging camp or perhaps just a hunting camp. It was possible the boiler was re-used for heating purposes and had nothing to do with steam production at all. But its sheer size and the concrete foundation gives me the impression it was used for a more robust function. Perhaps someone out there might have a clue, because I don’t.
22 Responses to “The Boiler Along the Gratiot”
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Maybe one of the mines had a sawmill up there at one time.
It has nothing to do with a locomotive, I can say that, its a stationary boiler of locomotive type.
I was looking at your aerial view, that road sure looks to have went to the original dam that was replaced by the new one. Even looking at the what I think is a railroad right of way there, would match up with the road. I was actually out there today, I think that entrance off the Cliff Rd was moved to match the causeway. When C&H got the new dam/causeway up, they had no real need to go out there as before. Even less reason when the pipe was pulled up and used for the “new” Seneca Mine.
I think that boiler powered a water pump to pump water back to Seneca Lake from the Gratiot river. The rail line was probably how they got the coal out there. Since that was so far back, I would guess any building would have been wood framed.
Who knows, maybe the rail line was pulled first, the coal being trucked out after, since Paul said he had a Mineral Range map with the track out there
C&H took over those lines in the late 1920’s with the consolidation, since the one aerial view I saw from 1938 didn’t have the new dam/causeway yet that pump may have been working yet.
I am just speculating on this, but here is an idea. Looking at your map (and zooming in using MSRmap web site) it looks like there was a very straight road or rail grade from the boiler location south east towards Seneca Lake. However, it looks like it would have stayed to the north of the creek making a ‘S’ curve and comming out perpendicular to US 41 just to the north of where the creek passes under the road. This might put it in a location where it could follow on the N. side of the creek and curve back to the road from the Seneca location. There might not be much of a grade through the wet area north of Seneca Lake because a pile trestle may have been used. this would put it off of the dam. It might be possible to tell if this were correct by doing additional investigation to see if there was a grade to the north of the creek near US41 or north of the dam outfall area. just some thoughts, as I have not been there and don’t know if the two track is flat enough to be a RR grade.
How big is this? It looks huge.
Could it have been used for a logging camp as a external heater / boiler? I’m thinking that a logging camp hauled it in.
An old USGS map shows that trail headed to the boiler has a fork headed north before you get to the river and dead ends at a building.
The boiler’s at least nine to ten feet in height (which includes the concrete base) and a few dozen feet long. But that’s really just a rough guess, since I’m horrible at measurement by eye.
I spent the better part of the afternoon at the Tech Archive on Thursday, wasn’t the original plan, but it happens.
I could not find anything about the newer dam or that boiler for that matter.
In 1910 a dam was constructed at Seneca Lake for #3 and 4 shaft. A small pumping station was constructed containing a Knowles pump, engine, boiler, condesnor and heater. 4675 ft of pipe was laid.
1916, they had installed a dynamo at #3 and 4 and power was brought to Seneca Lake and a concrete and brick pumphouse was installed to supplement the steam pump.
1919, a mention of a dry summer and problems with a shortage of water from Seneca Lake. A temporary pump was laid to the south end of the Ahmeek property to get water.
1921, C&H’s water pipe was extended to supply #3&4 with Lake Superior water.
I did find a map with the former rail line on it from 1917, the track began just to the west of the #3&4 shaft and went directly north to Seneca Lake, then curved around the north end and stopped short of the Cliff Rd. This 1917 map shows it as an old railroad grade.
I’ll have to look at the 1938 aerial photo again to see if I can tell for sure if this new dam was really there or not.
I did go back and look at the 1938 aerial view, the new dam was there in 1938. I just wonder if this was something done to help with the water shortage at the mine in 1919, since according to the annual reports C&H’s water line was there in 1921.
Who knows, maybe that boiler was from the first pumphouse at Seneca Lake and moved out there to get water to fill Seneca Lake from the river.
They would have still had the electric pump at Seneca Lake to pump water back to the mine. That concrete base has the look of concrete from the 1915-1920ish time frame.
i went out to the boiler today. That thing is impressive! But, the road there is much too windy and steep (in places) to have been a railroad grade. Also, I tried to find the side-road which goes to the old building marked on Topo maps, but I couldn’t find even a hint. Perhaps a GPS is in order…
OK, what the heck Topo map has that on it?
Gordy — the only topos I can find.
I use Acme Mapper. Here’s a link with the boiler and the house both marked. Make sure you click “Topo” if it’s not already in that mode.
Acme Mapper
The USGS 7.5 minute map shows the structure.The fork in the trail is at about 47*19.302N -88*22.876W.The trail heads about due north from there 200 yards to the structure at 47*19.440N -88*22.854W which is about 70 yards from the river and about 180 yards from the boiler.That is if the boiler is located where the trail crosses the river.Never been there just going by the map.
Oops,didn’t see dc’s post.Must have been posting at the same time.
Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention looking at the map, duh.
But I forgot about using Acme Mapper, make it a little easier to find things with my GPS. I wonder if there is anything at the original dam site to the north of the newer one. Maybe next trip up, I wish I would have looked at that boiler, I sat in the little park on Seneca Lake when I was there last week, but stopped to eat.
The boiler is right next to the river, and I think it’s basically where that “bridge” is on the map. There were some tiny cement footings in the brush (the whole area is REALLY overgrown), which could have been for a small bridge. I didn’t cross the river.
Getting to the house could be a real adventure, just because there’s no clear path ANYWHERE. Sounds fun, though!
I checked the map from PP #144, it appears that the dam was not there in 1928.
when is someone going to digitize all of 144, come on people its 2010!
Charles…. Thats a good question. I would be willing to at the very least digitize the maps and put them up here on CCE for everyone’s perusal. Being a government publication it would be in the public domain so all that stopping me from doing it is time (and a copy of my own). Maybe I’ll have to look into it.
Mike, If you can get the OK to do it, I will loan you my copy to do it with. Its missing the mine sections, but its complete other than that.
If you want an almost complete copy of the USGS Professional Paper 144 , State of Michigan has it,
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/GIMDL-Catalog-2010-01-20_307979_7.pdf
Hopefully the link will get you there.
Page down through the catalog to page 34, 8 parts to download. According to the site, the maps are the only thing missing and openning them up it looks to be the whole thing, parts 1 and 2.
This has a lot of useful data, just found the catalog tonight and was looking through it all.
Well that bites the big one, the last file is missing when clicked on, thought I would snap them up before the demand gets to great and we bankrupt the State of Michigan.
Guess I’ll have to try and email them to let them know it doesn’t work.
You do have to download the file before you can save it.
The “Proceedings of the Lake Superior Mining Institute” are another good source of information on Michigan copper mining. One issue had an article on the inlet for the Champion stamp mill.