The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad reached Algoma Township in 1867. A series of wooden trestles were built to cross Wicked Creek, later named Stegman Creek. In 1885, after repeated fires and floods, the railroad hired James House to cut fieldstones from his farm and build this culvert to stabilize the trestle. Eventually, the railroad abandoned the trestle and buried it intact within a wall of dirt above the culvert.