HOPKINS

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The Steep Grade at Hopkins

"During the fruit harvest (the freight train) would haul fruit from Berrien County, occasionally with an extra train. The grade was steep near Hopkins and sometimes the train could not pull up it. The engineer would give a distress signal on his whistle and the station manager would telegraph to Kalamazoo for a bumper engine. This hill section of the railroad was most troublesome and on a few occasions the track would spread, and the engine would derail. So, they would back a train out from Kalamazoo to pick up the passengers before they sent equipment to rerail the engine."
- George Harold Sliter, Recollections of Alamo and Heirs of Erin

"Struck A Gravel Bank."

"A FREIGHT TRAIN DITCHED AT HOPKINS ON THE SOUTH HAVEN ROAD."

"The freight train which left here at 6 o'clock yesterday morning on the South Haven division of the Michigan Central railroad was in charge of John Bachelder as conductor, James Quigley as brakeman, Joseph Reed, engineer, and John Wall fireman. Before leaving, the possibility of finding obstructions on the track as the result of the heavy storm was spoken of as something from which a sharp lookout should be kept. They found one at the road crossing just this side of the station at Hopkins but could not see it, owing to the sharp curve, but a short distance. The down grade is steep there, going west, and the brake was set on the top of the hill and the train, while running at 10 or 12 miles an hour, struck the sand and gravel which had washed on from the road which had just been plowed. The engine was thrown from the track and ran against the station house and wrecked one end of it. Fireman Wall was out on the rail and jumped and hurt his back so he was obliged to quit work. The engineer after stopping the engine made his escape. One car was turned bottom upwards, the tender turned end for end and two other cars set crossways of the track. Only the forward trucks of the coach jumped the track. The passenger which followed was flagged at Brownell's and returned to the city and the tool car and engine went out and the track was cleaned at 11:30 o'clock. Two freight cars and the coach were brought back to the city. The locomotive will be dug out of the sand today."

- Kalamazoo Gazette , June 12, 1890

After the first Hopkins station at the G Avenue crossing was demolished by a derailed train, the one in this photograph was built here, at the top of the hill. Image Credit: Sue Hodapp

Native Plants

As you travel the Kal-Haven Trail, take time to notice your surroundings. You will travel through forests and open fields, walk next to wetlands and cross streams on the foundations of original railroad bridges.

Take time to look for some of these plants photographed by Sue Hodapp.

Plant names:

• Common name.
• Scientific name.
• Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi) name.

Please remember: Take nothing but photos. Leave nothing but footprints.

Late Winter (February-March) Blooms

Skunk Cabbage

Symplocarpus foetidus

Skunk Cabbage Leaves

Dutchman's Breeches

Dicentra cucullaria

Sharp-lobed Hepatica

Hepatica acutiloba

wzawask

Bloodroot

Sanguinaria canadensis

mskwithiběk

Scarlet Cup Fungi

Sarcoscypha coccinea

Spring (April-May) Blooms

Large-flowered Trillium

Trillium grandiflorum

Kesana'kwions

Squirrel Corn

Dicentra canadensis

Wild Geranium

Geranium maculatum

Wild Blue Phlox

Phlox divaricate

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Arisaema

mkothiběk

Trout Lily

Erythronium americanum

Alternate-leaf Dogwood

Swida alternifolia

mozmesh

Cutleaf Toothwort

Dentaria laciniate

Summer (June-July) Blooms

Common Elder-flower

Sambucus canadensis

Spotted Jewelweed

Impatiens carpensis

Staghorn Sumac

Rhus typhina

bakwanmesh

Wood Nettle

Laportea canadensis

mzan

Tall Bellflower

Campanula Americana