New Era, Michigan

Every so often as you wander out and about, you see a town name that catches your fancy.  And you often wonder where the name came from.

 New Era was founded in 1872 as told by the sign as you enter the town.  I speculated that it was named so because of the relatively new era of the railroads.

 The name was determined by Doctor Spaulding, who was owner of the Spaulding Saw Mill.

 The village pretty much follows the standard Midwestern village template.

 The local feed mill.

 The Hart-Montague Trail passes by town.  It was one of the first rails-to-trails projects in the state of Michigan.  In 1894, there was a train wreck near here where 7 men were killed. 

 I kind of liked the looks of this building.

And there was a church at the edge of town.

A Stop in Cohoctah

Just north of Howell is Cohoctah Township.  That's where the Pere Marquette stopped.  Although it was more or less a stop to turn around to go back to Howell.  I had a little time to kill between catching trains, so I decided to take some pictures.

The area was first organized in 1838 as Tuscola Township.  It later became known as Bristol Township in 1857.  In 1867, it received its current name.  The general store here is actually in Cohoctah proper which is a unicorporated community.

The Zip Code is 48816.

I kind of liked this building.

The first grain elevator was formed here in 1886.

Another grain elevator.

And one more angle.