04/22/2026
Long before the first trolley car rolled through Grass Lake, a hand-powered railcar led the way — and the story starts right here in Michigan.
George Sheffield, a Michigan farmer, was caught riding his homemade contraption on railway tracks without permission. Instead of just a fine, he got a patent — and became the first person to manufacture and sell velocipedes to railway companies across the United States.
These self-propelled railcars were essential to early railway operations — faster than walking, more practical than a bicycle on uneven terrain, and far cheaper than a motor vehicle at a time when most people didn't own one.
And Grass Lake has its own chapter in that history. When W.A. Boland built the interurban railway, the very first thing to travel those tracks wasn't a trolley — it was a velocipede, ridden by his son-in-law Warrell Wilson between Grass Lake and Jackson.
📍 Come see this piece of local history up close at the Lost Railway Meuseum velocipede hand car exhibit.
