Climax Prairie trails

After leaving Section 28, I wanted to get as close as I could to Potter Lake, because that’s where the story of the naming of Climax Prairie took place:

Some time in April or May, 1831, Judge Eldred, Daniel B. Eldred, Hiram Moore, and Calvin White visited the prairie, and made a thorough examination of it. Night overtook them and they camped on the east bank of a beautiful clear lake, which lay near the trail just west of the prairie, now known as Potter’s Lake. Before leaving they proposed to name the prairie, and each in turn suggested a name. Judge Eldred, Moore, and White each suggested the name of their native place. Last came Daniel B. Eldred, who said, ” This caps the climax of everything I ever saw. I propose we call it Climax.” And so it was named… History of Kalamazoo County (1880) page 326

Note that this account refers to “the trail just west of the prairie.” I take that to mean that the campsite was somewhere in the green circle on the map above. The map is from Hinsdale’s “Archaeological Atlas of Michigan” published in 1931. The red lines are Indian trails. Much of the information about their location was derived from the notes of the government land surveyors. The Euro-American settlers continued to use those trails. The party of Eldred et al had come from Comstock township, so I presume they had used the trail that runs tangentially to the top of the green circle, plus some other trails that are only hinted at on Hinsdale’s map.

In Charleston Township that trail now is more-or-less replaced by county road MN, which is the road shown in the photo above. It’s a much-used county road, but it has paved shoulders that make it comfortable enough for bicycling. To walk to the lake, you’d cross the road from the county park, and cut through the trees, veering to the left. Except you wouldn’t do that because it’s on private property. If you wanted to follow in the Eldred party’s footsteps, you’d have to settle for camping at Cold Brook park, which is more on the shore of Portage Lake than Potter Lake. (I think there is camping, but am not absolutely sure about that. It’s too close to home for me ever to have used it.)

Here’s a view from 42nd street, where the land drops down toward Potter Lake on the east side. It’s somewhere behind those trees.

A little less than two miles further south, 42nd street crosses these train tracks. They seem to be part of an big rail route between Chicago and Detroit, judging by all the traffic it carries, and how they kept Myra awake at night when we camped at other locations within hearing of these tracks. This eastbound train with a half-dozen locomotives was waiting here when I rode by.

In studying Hinsdale’s atlas, I came to realize that these railroad tracks also follow an old Indian trail — the one I’ve circled in blue on the Hinsdale map. The yellow X is about where I took this photo. I should have paid more attention to the significance of this route long ago, because some of the stories of the Black Hawk scare involve people riding or walking through Climax Prairie on their way between Marshall and Schoolcraft. This would be the route they took. The railroad builders would have straightened it out, of course.