In the 1870s, logging was a seasonal operation because horses or oxen could drag logs over snow or ice trails to sawmills or rivers, but once the ground thawed the logs could not be moved. Ephraim Shay (1839 1916), a logger from Haring near Cadillac, was one of several people who concluded that temporary railroad tracks and the right locomotive would let lumbermen haul logs year round. He envisioned a small but powerful locomotive able to operate on steep grades and sharp curves, and he used vertical pistons and a flexible drive shaft to transfer power through gears to all the wheels beneath the engine and tender. This design produced more power, less wear on the tracks, and the ability to negotiate tight curves. Shay received patents for his geared locomotive in 1881 and had already granted the exclusive right of manufacture to Ohio’s Lima Locomotive and Machine Company, which produced 2,770 Shay locomotives from 1880 to 1945. Before developing his successful locomotive, Shay experimented with tramways using horse-drawn cars, but on downgrades the horses risked being run over by runaway cars. Later, with the help of Cadillac machinist William Crippen, he built a rigid drive locomotive, but it tore up the wooden tracks then in use. He finally produced the geared locomotive with pivot mounted trucks that bears his name. This locomotive, built in 1898, was the last used by the Cadillac Soo Lumber Company and was restored in 1985.