Station: Wenona Beach, MI

Wenona Beach was located on Saginaw Bay, north of West Bay City. It was reportedly developed around 1892 by the electric street railway in Bay City but was also served by the GTW [USGS-1919]. It was located 1.5 miles due north of the Detroit & Mackinac North Bay City yard, on Saginaw Bay.

Image info: Top, a postcard photograph of the Beach House at Wenona Beach. At the left is some type of tourist railroad ride. About 1910. Below, a Sanborn Map of the park. Note the interurban loop on the bottom of the image. From 1912. [DBM]

Notes

Time Line

1905. The Wenona Beach Park is located five miles north of Bay City on the shore of Saginaw Bay, and is an exceptionally high class summer resort. The cars are operated from Bay City to this park on a 30-minute schedule throughout the year, with extra cars to accommodate excursions and the regular summer traffic. The round-trip fare is 15 cents. Other than the usual park pavilions and amusement enclosures which are to be found here, is a large casino, located close to the bay shore and near the company's pier, which extends 400 ft. into the bay. This casino is of pleasing design with high towers at its corners. The seating capacity is 1,600 and for 15 weeks during the summer season continuous vaudeville, including a moving picture machine, forms the chief attraction of the park. The general admission to the casino is free, and reserved seats may be had for 10 and 15 cents each. In a nearby building is a large dining-hall, which serves a 50-cent table of d'hote dinner, and in connection with the dining-hall are lunch counters and a restaurant. [SRJ-1905]

1907. January 28. Harry Rivers, a motorman on the Wenona Beach line of the street railway, was killed instantly and Mrs. John Corvern of Wenona Beach was injured this morning in a collision between a beach car and the northbound D&M passenger train, at the crossing of the two lines. Rivers slowed his car down, as is usual, when approaching the crossing, but did not bring it to a full stop.

The passenger train, running about 30 miles an hour, struck the forward end of the car, the vestibule and front trucks having crossed the railroad track. The car was thrown to one side. When Rivers was pulled out of the wreck it was found that his neck had been broken. Mrs. Corvern was seated in the rear end of the street car and sustained serious bruises, but will recover.

The conductor in charge of the street car says the car was running slowly enough so that he had left it and was running forward to flag the crossing. He could give no explanation of the accident. The D&M yard tracks were only partially occupied by other cars at the time and the passenger train could be seen coming some distance. Several similar accidents, without fatal results, however, have occurred at the same point. [DFP-1907-0129]