“Around the turn of the century, as many as thirty-five passenger trains, one hundred freight trains and three thousand passengers used the depot each day.”

Signal tower near downtown Durand.

An engine.

A caboose – something you don’t see much of these days.

A rather odd little drinking fountain. They should have chosen a bear, instead.

The Durand Memorial Library. This is where I got my very first library card. Come to think of it, I think this is where I got my only library card.

Culverts at Trumble park. These actually make great playground equipment.

We had larger culverts at my elementary school that we would crawl into and sit and chat.

There used to be a little dirt path, here. My mom had a baby seat on the back of 10-speed. She would take me for rides around town. Riding down this little [no longer existing] path was my favorite part. This was probably the first experience that foreshadowed my mountain biking addiction.

This is the little school where I had my CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) classes as a kid.

This is the church of my childhood – St Mary Catholic Church. This church has a GREAT priest.

I didn’t think this photo was very good, at first, but then I noticed the clouds in relation to the steeple and found it rather novel.

This little garden is a newer feature.

My brother slid off of this curve one winter.

I-69. …ha ha.

I really enjoyed my ride around Durand. It was kind of odd touring the town in which I grew up and tried desperately to escape. After my little tour, I realized that Durand has some good points and definitely has its place in the history books.

The Durand Depot was built in 1903 and later rebuilt in 1905 following a fire. More than 100 years later, it serves as an Amtrak stop between Port Huron and Chicago. Of course, I had to stop and take a gander while I was doing my bicycle tour of Durand.

“On March 27, 1960, Grand Trunk Western train No. 56 left the depot for Detroit. It was the last regularly-scheduled passenger train in the United States to be pulled by a steam locomotive.”

Just on the other side of the tracks, my family saw George W. Bush speak during his campaign while traveling across the state of Michigan by rail.

I found the old wheelchair to be fascinating.

Yeah, even the Shiawassee County squirrels are suicidal. I was climbing a hill on Bancroft Road when a squirrel decided to run in front of me. It was cool because there was plenty of clearance between me and Mr. Squirrel. It was Mr. Squirrel’s friend who chose to dive-bomb in front of my wheel in an effort to graze the tire. All I really know is that both of us had an “Oh, shit!” look on our faces. He hastily fumbled across the road to escape the wrath of Jake the Snake.

I had fun riding into Durand and getting pictures of the place where I spent my early childhood. I toured the city of trains and ended it with lunch at Subway. That’s kind of funny if you think about it, although the only subway Durand has is the fast food joint. My stomach was nagging me for food, so I had to stop. After lunch, I finished my tour with 35 minutes of riding into a headwind to return to my parents’ house. My total time out was two hours and 37 minutes, including 10 minutes for lunch.

I took a lot of photos, so I am going to divide this into a multi-part photo essay.

The city limit sign includes the marching band championship years. My brother was a percussionist for the Durand Marching Band in the 1980s. They champs even then.

Optimist park is where I used to play when I was a kid. There used to be a monster wooden bridge in the field, but that has long since been gone. There are two ball fields.

The basketball court used to be filled with water to make an ice rink. That is where the local kids would play hockey. My mom used to take me ice skating there. This hockey arena, complete with the building structure, is newer. Apparently, hockey has really taken off in Durand.

It shouldn’t be surprising that school buses are a part of my childhood memories.

It didn’t look like this, but this is the house I grew up in until I was in the fourth grade. We moved out to the country in November of 1986.

There were some trails behind our old neighborhood. This particular trail has always been there and runs along “the creek”—Three Mile Creek—and ends at the train tracks.

Snake Mountain used to be part of the trails. There are still trails nearby where kids continue to build dirt jumps. I guess I really got my start mountain biking on a banana-seat Huffy.

Candy. Need I say more? We kids used to go to the Southside Market for candy, candy, candy. It had the best selection. It was Heaven.

This started off as the Durand High School. When the new high school was built, it was changed into the Durand Junior High. They now have a new school and I’m not quite sure what is being done with this building.