As I used to drive along Portage Road past the Bryant Mill
I often wondered why the old Chicago, Kalamazoo and Saginaw
(CK&S) railroad spur coming from the East stopped at Southside
Lumber on the east side of Portage Road. It did not cross the
road and into the mill. Surely the mill would have been a
considerable source of rail traffic. Twenty-five years later,
Mark Worrell brought the information below to my attention. The
plan in 1902 was to build into the mill from the East. The
railroad company even bought land on the West side of Portage
Road as shown in the map below. However, the final piece of
track across Portage Road never got laid. It is not known why
this was.
