Clinton River Trail—History
The Clinton River Trail is a recreational trail following 16 miles of abandoned rail line once known as the Michigan Airline through the heart of Oakland County, including the cities of Sylvan Lake, Pontiac, Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills and Rochester. It connects with the existing West Bloomfield trail to the west and the Macomb Orchard Trail to the east. The CRT is part of an envisioned trail that will extend from Port Huron to Ann Arbor, and possibly even further.
The Backbone of the CRT—the Michigan Airline (Submitted by Scott Anderson)
What's an "Airline" have to do with biking? As it turns out the railroad that ran from shore to shore across lower Michigan was called the Michigan Airline when it was built in the late-1880s, well before the Wright Brothers. Portions of that abandoned railroad right-of-way are being converted to trails.
St. Clair to Richmond
A little local history on the Airline Railway in our area. The section from St. Clair to Richmond was known locally as the "milk run" as that is what it was mainly used for. It's not available for us to use as a trail, because unfortunately for trail enthusiasts it was built in the very early days of railroading, and most adjacent landowners obtained "right of reversion" on the railroad right of way, which meant that when the railroad failed - and it was one of the earliest railroad abandonments in Michigan - the corridor ceased to exist and the land reverted to the adjacent landowner.
There are a very few spaghetti parcels in Casco and China townships, just south of St. Clair Highway, where reversion did not take place, but there aren't enough of them to join together to make a trail. In fact, unless you have a very good map with you, it's hard to find where the rail line was even if you make the effort.
Resources
PDF article about the campaign to move the Rochester Grain Elevator (the project is currently on hold)
Click here for an article about the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal from the Rochester Hills Museum
WEB SITE for the Shelby Township Historical Committee, featuring pages about the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal (opens in a new window)