In the formative years of America, the railroad tied cities together. The rails carried not only people to the new frontier, but also supplies, mail and other items. Many towns display rail cars, mainly engines or cabooses, celebrating the rail history of their area. Most towns have museums, many in non-descript buildings packed with history.While riding the bike trail in Whitehall, MI, we came upon a caboose behind the White Lake Chamber of Commerce. Like usual, we stopped to see the bright red caboose and realized it was open for inspection. It was one of the only caboose museums we have seen.  The converted Chesapeake & Ohio Caboose is home to railroad artifacts from the Montague and Whitehall area. In so many museums we visit climbing and sitting on things is not allowed. Here in the Caboose Museum, they are encouraged.

One of the more interesting pieces of the past was the message hoop. If a train was not stopping at a station yet there was a message that needed to be passed to the train, a message hoop was used. The message was clipped to the hoop and one of the men on the train would grab the hoop with his arm. He would then remove the message and throw the empty hoop off. Then the station man would have to walk down the track and retrieve the hoop. Later the hoop became a “Y” and the trainman was able to grab the message off the “Y”. The “Y” saved the station man much time and probably aggravation.

Message Hoop

There were many other artifacts yet no more interesting than the “Hoop”. There were several lanterns, water buckets, towels, etc. It is not large and not crowded with items but very interesting. The Caboose Museum was a nice stop on our bike ride.

Happy travels and many adventures along your journey.