Trout Lake Trains and a Train Wreck

Among the things we most enjoy about saving Birch Lodge are the people we come in contact with who have stories to tell about the historic inn and Trout Lake. Recently we were contacted by Judy, whose great grandfather David Watt was an engineer on the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad during its heyday in the early 20th century. We had seen images of a 1912 train wreck at Trout Lake on old post cards and on the internet. But Judy, who came across our blog railroad history entries, forwarded the personal history below that really adds depth and color to the incident. We are pleased to share this with you.


David Watt (1858-1945) went to work tending mules in the coal mines in Scotland at the age of twelve. When he was sixteen, his Uncle Wilson took him and four other boys to Canada to work on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In two years’ time, he became a train engineer.

At that time, his uncle moved to Marquette, Michigan, to take a master mechanics job on a young railroad called the Duluth, South Shore, & Atlantic (DSS&A). He brought all five young men with him. The others had their Scots brogue all their lives, but David said that if he was going to live in America, he was going to be an American! He worked hard to rid himself of his Scottish accent.

David was an engineer for 52 years for the DSS&A, traveling between Marquette on the south shore of Lake Superior and St. Ignace, on the north side of the Strait of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, a distance of about 150 miles.

He was in one bad train wreck in about 1914. Where the tracks of the DSS&A and the Soo Line crossed at right angles, all trains were supposed to stop 400 feet short of the crossing and blow their whistles four times. David did this, but the other train didn’t stop.

After he had started up again, he spotted the other train coming at him. He hit the brakes and tried to stop, but when he saw that he couldn’t, he told the fireman to jump off. The fireman did, urging David to jump, too. But David stayed in the cab and applied the brakes.


The fireman was only slightly injured, but when the cab was hit by the other engine, David was badly injured. He was pinned in the overturned, burning engine and was badly burned on the face and head by live steam and coals from the open fire box. About twenty minutes after the wreck, the fireman realized that David must still be in the engine. An unknown salesman soaked his coat in water, put it over his head, and went into the cab and pulled David out. David had his left ear burned off and many other scars. The family was never able to locate the brave man who rescued him.

We can surmise that our property, established as the Birch Lodge Hospital and Summer Resort Sanitarium, would have been involved in treating Mr. Watt and anyone else injured in the wreck. Recall that Dr. E.D. Ford opened the lodge in 1912 and was probably Trout Lake's only doctor at the time. Because Dr. Ford died later on that same year, Mr. Watt might have been one of the few patients ever treated at the lodge during its short tenure as a hospital.

Here are some historic post card views of the wreck:

Hemingway in the Upper Peninsula: Seney and Trout Lake

Ernest Hemingway visited Michigan's Upper Peninsula in 1919 after he returned from the Great War, travelling from St. Ignace to Seney. This image shows the author in 1918, a year before his UP trip.

The trip became the inspiration for "Big Two-Hearted River," one of his early - and semi-autobiographical - stories featuring a war veteran, Nick Adams, who travels to a remote area and finds the wilderness restorative.

Jack Jobst presents a detailed account of Hemingway's Seney adventure in his article Hemingway in Seney. Hemingway traveled northward from the Straits on board the St. Ignace Branch of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad, and would have disembarked at Trout Lake to make a connection with a west-bound DSSA train. We are not sure how much time he spent in town, but he certainly would have spent a bit of it at the depot, built in 1907, and which still exists today.

It is also possible he may have taken the short jaunt out to Birch Lodge - one can dream - although unlikely. But you can bet we will be searching through old guest records for any mention of the young war veteran.

From Trout Lake, Hemingway would have traveled to Seney, and disembarked at the depot. This small depot, built ca. 1890, still exists in town but has been moved and serves today as Seney's Museum and Historic Railroad Museum. The Museum focuses on the town's colorful logging era history and also offers exhibits relating to Hemingway's visit to the area.

Seney is situated on Hemingway's primary objective, the Fox River - and its wealth of trout. Hemingway undoubtedly caught many fish during his visit, an inspiration for his successful literary alter ego, Nick Adams, who successfully fished on the Fox's riparian alter ego, the Big Two Hearted River.

Both the Main Stream and East Branch of the Fox, today, offer fine fishing for brook trout, with natural reproduction aided by stocking by the Michigan DNR. Some 18 miles of the Fox Main Stream north of Seney have been designated a Michigan Blue Ribbon Trout Stream.


The river, which multiple sources indicate is little changed from Hemingway's time, is easily accessible from Seney and from many points along roads in the vicinity. Seney is just a little over an hour from Birch Lodge, so when you visit the area you can retrace the steps of Heminway and try your luck catching some brookies on the Fox.

Railroads and Trout Lake, MI

This photo was from Michigan Passenger Stations check them out!

For railroad enthusiasts, Trout Lake and Birch Lodge offer opportunities to experience the “sights and sound of the rails.” Trout Lake was founded at the junction of two historic Upper Peninsula railroads. The Detroit, Mackinac & Marquette Railroad began laying rails out of Marquette and St. Ignace in 1880 and operated trains between the two points by 1881. In 1886 the line declared bankruptcy, operated temporarily as the Mackinaw and Marquette Railroad, and by 1887 became the Duluth South Shore & Atlantic Railroad (with a Mackinac Division that ran south from Soo Junction to St. Ignace). The Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad was established in 1883 on a route generally paralleling the Lake Michigan shore before veering northeast to Sault Ste. Marie ("the Soo"). These two railroads merged with the Wisconsin Central Railroad in 1961 to form the Soo Line Railroad (the common name for the former MS&S).

This photo is courtesy of Chuck Schwesinger on Rail Pictures.Net

Railroads were the catalyst to settlement and early development of village of Trout Lake, which was platted in 1888 by the Peninsular Land Company (the land agent for the DM&MRR). The general location was called Trout Lake Junction. Railroad-related structures at the village included the DSS&A depot, roundhouse, pump houses and storage tanks, a section house, a bunkhouse and repair shops that together were used by at least 30 full-time employees. At its height 8 passenger trains a day ran through the town as well as a late night freight that included a passenger car. Birch lodge sent a wagon, and later an automobile, to pick up tourists at the depot. The original depot that still stands in the center of the village continues to be used by railroad maintenance crews, although the DSS&A ended its last Upper Peninsula passenger service after the Mackinac Bridge opened in 1958.

This photo of Trout Lake Station courtesy of
Michigan Railroads.com

In 1984 the line south out of Trout Lake was abandoned; in 1987 a large amount of Soo Line Railroad including all Michigan mileage, was spun off to Wisconsin Central Ltd, now part of Canadian National Railway. The former MS&S line survives today and runs by Birch Lodge and through Trout Lake. Train buffs standing at the entrance to the grounds of birch lodge can experience the power of locomotives as the slowly moving trains pass by, offering numerous opportunities for photographs and videos - or just waving hello to the CNRR engineers.

Another shot courtesy of Chuck Schwesinger on '>Rail Pictures.net