Shelling Lake Michigan: The Short Life of Camp Claybanks

Who Was Tsu-Ming Han?

From Big Bay to Detroit: A Summer Vacation

Sixteen Miles on the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal

Membership Magazine of the Historical Society of Michigan

hsmichigan.org • Volume 40, No 4 • Winter 2018 • $5.95

As Seen In

© 2

018

Histor

ical

Soc

iety

o

f Mic

higa

n

Very top: A display on a sign at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library pays homage to the area’s history of the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal. (All photos courtesy of Debbie Walter, unless otherwise noted.)

Visions Across MichigAnElected Governor of Michigan in 1835 at the age of 24, Stevens T. Mason remains the youngest governor in United States history. A favorite of President Andrew Jackson, the Virginia-born Kentuckian made an early imprint when he was appointed Secretary of the Michigan Territory at the age of 19. By the time he left public office in 1840 at the age of 28, Mason had facilitated Michigan’s transition from territory to state. His incumbency witnessed a myriad of ups and downs, including a border dispute with Ohio, peripheral involvement in the Black Hawk War, the establishment of a public school system, and two cholera outbreaks. Mason’s quest to develop a means for statewide commercial transport was no less volatile.

The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal, connecting the Hudson River and Lake Erie, provided an influx of easterners who nudged the population of the Michigan Territory to the 60,000 inhabitants needed to request statehood. The waterway’s success and subsequent canal projects galvanized Mason’s desire to link Michigan’s Great Lakes together by canals and railways. He envisioned the state as a vital cog in the westward creep of the nation’s commerce, drawing people to a domain perceived by some as hostile and unforgiving.

In addition to Mason’s drive to create a framework for commercial transportation, the state’s inaugural constitution mandated such action. On March 25, 1837, a seven-member

board was appointed to oversee all internal improvements.

The proposed system in Michigan comprised two canals and three rail lines. A separate request for a ship canal to bypass the rapids of the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie came on the heels of the canal and rail package. The rail piece consisted of a northern line from St. Clair to Grand Haven, a central line from Detroit to St. Joseph, and a southern line from Monroe to New Buffalo.

The northern canal would follow an established byway used by early inhabitants, providing passage between Saginaw Bay and Lake Michigan at Grand Haven. It would connect two networks of rivers flowing opposite directions—the Saginaw, Shiawassee, and Bad Rivers to the east and the Maple and Grand Rivers to the west.

The greater undertaking was the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, which would begin at Lake St. Clair near Mount Clemens and terminate into Lake Michigan at Singapore, near Saugatuck. It would join the Clinton River to the east with the Kalamazoo River in the west, creating a total run of 216 miles. It was to be the shining star of the transport initiative, a workhorse of a waterway moving the brunt of the cargo crossing Michigan.

FinAnciAl And PoliticAl WoesTo fund those internal improvements, Governor Mason lobbied the state legislature for permission to borrow money with which to purchase stock subscriptions in private railroad and

sixteen Miles on the clinton and Kalamazoo canal

An unassuming stream belies its significance as it skirts the trails and townships of Macomb and Oakland Counties. Made by man, not by nature, the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal mimics the route of the Clinton River for 16 miles, a last vestige of a young man’s ambitions. It was a field of dreams for Stevens Thomson Mason, Michigan’s first governor, who had a vision to link the communities of his fledgling state by traversing the Lower Peninsula with rail and waterways.

by Patrice Stegall Frantz

Governor Stevens T. Mason, who had dreams of building a series of canals across Michigan. (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-D416-554.)

14

Historical Society of Michigan

© 2

018

Histor

ical

Soc

iety

o

f Mic

higa

n

canal companies. The Michigan legislature, however, felt that full state ownership would be more lucrative in the long run. In early 1837, a bill was introduced and passed that charged Mason alone with the responsibility of negotiating a loan for $5 million and overseeing the issue of state bonds. The governor signed the legislation.

In the end, financing for the project was to come from any surplus of state revenue, 5 percent of all state land sales, and a 6 percent loan redeemable in 25 years for no more than $5 million. Profits from the rails and canals would be earmarked for a fund to reduce the loan. And it was to be secured by the full faith and credit of a very young state with little financial standing and profits from a source of income yet to be constructed.

As Mason fought for his political life during the election of 1837, the search for funding pulled him back and forth from Detroit to New York City. What he found in New York was a highly wary market due to faltering economic conditions, a trend reaching as far as London. A block of the project bonds sent to Great Britain for an advance of $150,000 was snubbed by European bankers and subsequently returned to the United States. The advance was expected to be refunded by the state. Another transaction with a Detroit shipbuilder was reduced from $500,000 in bonds to $200,000.

Mason proposed that a board be appointed to oversee the funding process, but his request was rejected.

Despite the financial tide running against the venture, the governor was directed to move ahead with the pursuit of funds. His desperate quest finally led him to Edward Biddle of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, who agreed to take on all unsold bonds and helped Mason seal the contract.

Mason was reelected in 1837 by a slim margin. Although Democrats and

Background: Remnants of the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal as seen today in Clinton

Township. Foreground: An 1837 map depicting the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal passing through the now-nonexistent village

of Frederick in Macomb County. (Map courtesy of the Archives of Michigan.)

15

Chronicle Winter 2018

© 2

018

Histor

ical

Soc

iety

o

f Mic

higa

n

Modern-day views of the remnants of the Clinton

and Kalamazoo Canal in Clinton Township.

Whigs alike had heartily supported the transportation package, the opposing Whig party had begun to berate Mason for the ills of the state. With time, some in his own party would turn against him. Indeed, the blush was off the rose for the young leader.

the Building BeginsIn July of 1838, Mason turned the first shovel of dirt at the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal near Mount Clemens, marking a new era for his burgeoning state. The event was cause for celebration, with the Democratic Free Press of Detroit dedicating its weekly issue to the groundbreaking. It was a hope-filled day for Mason and his party.

However, fate was not kind to the canal enterprise. As the federal government’s grace for the neophyte governor wore thin, wildcat banks were in full sway throughout the state and land speculation ran rampant. The financial panic of 1837 that eviscerated the economies of the eastern states would be sidling up to Michigan in short order. The freshman state would be sucker-punched by failing banks, inflation, and worthless currency.

The deal Mason had brokered to finance internal improvements,

too, was toppling at the edge. The governor’s deal with Morris Canal and Banking Company was less than perfect from the start. The 2 1/2 percent agent commission was to diminish the state’s proceeds to less than the par value of the bonds. Revised contracts ultimately gave Edward Biddle possession of all remaining bonds. Mason agreed to a plan wherein the Morris Company would put down one quarter of the cash and pay the remainder in quarterly payments. Morris would broker a quarter of the bonds, while the rest would be sent to the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania, headed at the time by Biddle’s cousin, Nicholas Biddle.

While both entities were solid and respectable at the onset of the agreement, they would be insolvent within the year, with more than $2 million in installments outstanding. Mason’s back-to-the-wall decision to hand over the entire bond issue with relatively small security was harshly criticized.

With the failure of the bond agents and a state government strapped for cash, the financial plan for the canal and rail project was in shambles. The future was bleak,

for the canal was expected to not only pay for itself but also produce a substantial profit. Aggravating an already tenuous circumstance, the railroads were suffering from slow and poor construction; corruption within the internal improvements board included bid tampering; and, as funding fell away, projects were halted or abandoned.

the deAth oF A dreAMBy 1840, the transport system that was to be the envy of a new nation was dead—or, at the very least, on life support. The northern railway never got past the clearing and grading stage, the central line ended at Kalamazoo, and the southern rail barely made it to Hillsdale. (However, the central and southern railways were completed years later by private companies.) Excavation on the northern canal ended when an

angry and unpaid crew abandoned the project. Struggling against poor

engineering and dwindling funds, the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal

got as far as Rochester, just 16 miles in all.

Many saw the state’s foray into the commercial transport

business as the death knell for an ambitious

improvement plan. If Mason’s proposal to privatize the

16

Historical Society of Michigan

© 2

018

Histor

ical

Soc

iety

o

f Mic

higa

n

A twentieth-century photograph of the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal aqueduct near Yates Cider Mill in Rochester. (Photo courtesy of the Mount Clemens Public Library.)

project had won the day, the outcome may have been different. But, with the perfect storm swirling around it, Michigan’s scheme was a victim of the times that spurred it—as was Mason’s political ambition.

Believing discernment the better part of valor, Governor Mason opted not to run for reelection in 1839. The candidate for the opposing Whigs, William Woodbridge, used Mason’s very public failings as fodder for his successful campaign and continued to do so as governor. Feeling the much-battered scapegoat and knowing that his wife, Julia, was homesick for her family in New York, Mason relocated his family to New York City, where he planned to set up a private law practice. But the young man’s dreams were thwarted once more when he became ill with pneumonia and died on January 5, 1843. He was 31 years old.

There is one waterway project championed by Mason in this transportation saga that not only survived but also flourished. Completed in 1855, the first lock of the canal around the rapids of the Upper Peninsula’s St. Marys River saw 27 vessels pass through it in its first year. Now known as the Soo Locks, the maritime wonder provides passage through four locks for more than 7,000 ships annually.

reMeMBering the cAnAl todAyThrough the dedication of Michiganders, the lesser-known canal attempts can be studied today. Many organizations work to secure the roles of the northern canal and the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal in our state’s history.

There are outstanding opportunities for access along the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, with a state historical marker at Yates Park in Rochester Hills. For Deborah Remer, a retired science teacher and longtime Rochester Hills Museum volunteer,

the canal has always been a part of her life. Remer, author of Lost Villages, Small Towns and Railroad Stops in Oakland and Macomb County, grew up in Shelby Township on land bordered by the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal. She still lives on the property that started as her great grandfather’s farm in 1896. “My brother and I and my mom and dad have always had interest in the canal,” shared Remer. “My mom led nature walks to help people appreciate the woods and learn the history of the canal.”

Evidence of the canal’s influence on today’s Clinton River communities is demonstrated by a street running parallel with the canal route called Canal Road, as well as Clinton Township’s Canal Park. The park showcases excellent up-close views of the canal and has a kiosk with historical information.

The stretch of canal between Utica and Mount Clemens continued in use as a millrace for several years after the canal project was officially abandoned. The turning basin that allowed boats to turn around or pass is now under M-59 near Utica, but a line of willow trees remains as a reminder of where the canal once flowed.

There is a mural at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library depicting the canal, and a restored schoolhouse nearby hosts a collection of canal artifacts. Also at the library is a

walkway that offers views of the canal.According to Remer, what remains of the original 17 locks and dams can be seen “if you know what you’re looking for.”

While the course of a Southeastern Michigan channel may not have the awe-inspiring allure of the engineering marvel at Sault Ste. Marie, it is no less dignified. Like its advocate and ally, Michigan Governor Stevens T. Mason, it was an advanced soul passing quickly through history, its promise and foibles fundamental in carving the face of the Great Lakes State.

Freelance writer and Western Michigan-native Patrice Stegall Frantz’s work spans an array of

subjects from Frank Lloyd Wright to beach sweeps.

The interesction of Clinton River and Canal Roads in Clinton Township.

17

Chronicle Winter 2018

© 2

018

Histor

ical

Soc

iety

o

f Mic

higa

n