Old bus lines

Hello All,

I recently was doing some thinking the other day, and I recall when I was growing up in Utica, there were people that would often take a bus that, I believe traveled up M53 and found its way into Port Austin. However I could find no information on this particular bus or for that matter, other buslines that may have extended out of this nature.

If anyone recalls this or remembers, please let me know.

I did stumble upon this site in the process, pretty cool nostalgia!

http://www.detroittransithistory.info/

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Originally Posted by phin

... in Utica, there were people that would often take a bus that, I believe traveled up M53 and found its way into Port Austin....

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Welcome to the forum, phin.

I remember that bus too so you're not imagining it. Of course that was before the M-53 freeway so by M53, you mean Van Dyke.

I remember few details though. Something tells me it wasn't Greyhound. Maybe Trailways? I think it parked on northbound Van Dyke just south of what was a bank but is now a restaurant supply store.

And the idea of "Indian" keeps surfacing as if it were in the name or logo of that bus company.

Ah! I think it was Indian Trails.

My father worked for Indian Trails for decades. For a very long time their business was regular routes through Michigan and the midwest. Now it has turned more to chartered service, but the regular runs still exists.

The story of the name dates to the origin of most of the major roadways through Michigan.

Not the same - but the old interurban would pick you up at the ten o'clock last call in Rochester and drop you off in one hour in downtown Detroit or Flint. BU [[before Uber death trap).

In the forties and fifties, Martin Bus Lines used to have a twice daily run from Hotel Rochester in downtown Rochester to the end of the DSR Woodward line in Royal Oak so that you could get downtown from Rochester. The kids called it the "Blue Goose". I am not sure how long it lasted. Probably quit when people quit going downtown.

Old memory is suggesting to me a small bus depot on one of the side streets between Cass & Van Dyke. McClellan maybe?

I didn’t know that Indian Trails ever running inside Detroit’s city limit or even having a depot inside of Detroit

^^^ I remember it, they were a bit more worn compared to the Greyhound. But I recall riding it as a kid!

Glad to know I am not that crazy! I recall people talking bout it being a thing of that past when i worked at my first b&m job, in the Utica area, at around the age of 14 [[around 95).

Thank you for some of the information. It appears a few quick searches did not offer to much information, but perhaps some deeper digging may bring some things up.

Didn't Indian Trails also run a bus that connected Ann Arbor and East Lansing, originating in Detroit? I remember taking such a bus during my MSU years in the late'70s. It was slightly cheaper than the Greyhound Detroit - Lansing run, and had the advantage for me of allowing me to get some research done at the UM Law Library for one of my projects at MSU [[since MSU had no law school back then) and then get on back up to E. Lansing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phin

... I recall people talking bout it being a thing of that past when i worked at my first b&m job, in the Utica area, at around the age of 14 [[around 95).

Thank you for some of the information....

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My memories of that bus stop were from the late '60s. I suspect it was a holdover from before the freeways were built in the '50s. Folks who wanted to go "up north" before the freeways took M53-Van Dyke.

I also recall a taxidermist on the northeast corner of Van Dyke & Hahn. They had an enormous! stuffed polar bear on display. So hunters could drop off their kill there on their way back south.

So now I'm wondering if they allowed hunters to strap a deer carcass on top of the bus. LOL!

There was also a Sweden House and a Colonial bowling alley in the neighborhood. Smitty's Tire was a major source of nuisance mosquitoes.

Weingartz since took over the Colonial Lanes space. There's still a bank vault [[sans door) in the restaurant supply store. Good place to shelter in a tornado!