THE SAVAGE'S CORNER STORE

ELKHORN STATION

         Elkhorn Station was built in the early 1920s at the Big Spring Corner by Joel Leslie Savage and son Leslie.  It is now the junction of M149 and 442.  It was operated as a grocery store, restaurant and gas station.  Gasoline was supplied by the Sinclair Gasoline Company and delivered by P.J. McNamara and Sons from Manistique.  Candy and pop and souvenir photos of the Big Spring (Kitchi-ti-kipi) were taken to the Big Spring from the store to be sold since there was no concession building at the Springs.  Alton Carley, a grandson, and Dorothy Savage Johnson, Grand-daughter, recall taking supplies over the old dirt road that existed at that time.

             At one time an ice house was built behind the store where ice was stored and sold to people in the community for their ice boxes.  Ice was removed from Indian Lake in the winter with a team of horses and preserved by storing under piles and piles of sawdust.  It lasted most of the summer.

             As an attraction for tourists to stop, animals were kept in area behind the store.  Some of them were bear, deer, bob-cat and coyote.

             Some of the items listed in a charge ledger kept by Rose Savage included:

            5 loaves of bread for         $0.66
            5 niggerhair for                      .45
            1 pr. of overalls                     1.15
            1 gal. of kerosene                    .18
            5# of sugar                               .43 

            What a bargain - five (5) loaves of bread for 66 cents and a pair of overalls for $1.15!

            To this day the bill from the electric company comes addressed to Elkhorn Station.  Cooks, Michigan and the weather station in the field is referred to as the Elkhorn Weather station by the forest service