Station: Sallings, MI

Sallings was located on the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw railroad (later MC/NYC) about four miles south of downtown Gaylord. It was located along Otsego Lake just north of Oak Grove.

This was originally a village called Bagley and then renamed to Sallings in 1899. The Salling Hanson Lumber Company was active in this area. [MPN]

Sallings was a junction point where MC forest lines served eastern Otsego County with the Bagley Branch diverging from the main line here.

In the 1980’s, it was the dividing point between state-owned rail and the Detroit & Mackinac trackage when the D&M operated this line after it was sold to the state by Penn Central. The railroad had a 1,904' passing siding here in 1911.

The town of Salling operated from 1899 to 1912. Salling, Hanson operated a sa mill here, which ws purchased from Harvey Mellon on the northeast corner of Otsego Lake. [OHT-1987-0820]

A water tank serviced trains running on the Bagley branch of the MC. This right of way was on what is called Alpine Road today. There was a depot at Salling, as well as a wye for turning locomotives. [OHT-1987-0820]

Image info: Top, told freight station at Sallings, in a railroad valuation photo from 1918. Note the semaphore signal which either used as a block signal or a mail pickup signal. [CMUL]. 2nd image a locomotive in front of the Bagley depot. This location had not been confirmed. [UML]

Notes

Bagley may have been named after John J. Bagley, Governor of Michigan from 1873 to 1877. Bagley also served on the Detroit Common Council and Police Commission  He was President of the Michigan Mutual Insurance Company. He was instrumental in the establishment of the State Railroad Commission which provided regulation of common carrier railroads. He contracted tuberculosis and died at the early age of 49 in 1881. (Wiki)

A sawmill was located at Bagley and moved to several locations in Otsego County per newspaper reports.

The Michigan Central railroad built tracks onto the ice of Otsego Lake at Salling. The ice was cut to a depth of 8 inches, and then pulled up from the water and loaded into railroad cars. In 1906, the MC loaded close to 5,000 carloads of ice which were taken south. [GAY-2010-0724]]

Time Line

1907. L. Jenson had a large saw, lath & planing mill and lumber yard at Salling. The mill had a capacity of 50,000 feet per day, with an average production of 8 million feet a day. It was located between the MC Mackinaw Branch and Otsego Lake. The mill was powered by steam from waste fuel. The plant had fire hydrants connected to a Knowles steam pump with a 400 gal. per minute capacity, drawing from the lake. [SBM-1907]

1908. Five trainmen were injured when two MC trains collided head-on at Salling at 4:15 in the morning, when the "pick-up" of the Bagley branch and the southbound Hill engine with a train of butter and miscellaneous freight met on the main line. Both engines were badly smashed up and two cars of the southbound train were piled in the ditch. Most of the crew escaped serious injury by jumping through the cab windows. The injured were brought to Gaylord and attended by Dr. Richards and at noon were taken to their homes in Grayling and Bay City. It was a very foggy morning and the heavy dew was still on the rails, which is ascribed as a cause of the collision. [SCH-1908-0618]

1908. October. Salling (sic), where the Jenson sawmill is located is endangered from forest fires which are approaching from the east. [GRP-1908-1019]

1911. July. At Sallings, the roofs were torn from a string of cars by the high wind. The area has been threatened by forest fires. [DFP-1911-0712]