After 1870, Michigan lumbermen increasingly used logging railroads to open areas too far from rivers for logs to be taken to mills in the spring drive. In Clare County, the Lake George and Muskegon Railroad began hauling logs seven miles to the Muskegon River in 1877. New steam sawmills soon rose near these narrow-gauge lines because logging trains furnished a steady supply of timber. The Shays train was a type specially designed for use on logging railroads.