Bloomingdale's 1870 depot beside the Kal-Haven Trail

The railroad helped pull Bloomingdale into the place it is now. Van Buren County records that township residents subscribed $16,700 when the line was discussed in 1869. Augustus Haven gave the depot land, bought the first engine’s headlight, and served on the railroad’s first board. Harvey Howard and his brothers built the station and presented it to the railroad. The first passenger train arrived on July 4, 1870.

The rails did not last. Service between Kalamazoo and South Haven ended in March 1971, and crews removed the track in 1977. The corridor later became Kal-Haven Trail State Park. Michigan DNR now describes a 33.5-mile trail on the abandoned railroad bed, with Bloomingdale as the midpoint.

Van Buren County’s museum page calls the building the only original depot on the Kal-Haven Trail between South Haven and Kalamazoo. That is a clear, route-specific county description, not a claim about every depot in Michigan. The restored building was registered as a Michigan Historical Site and dedicated as a museum on September 19, 1987. The Michigan History Center describes the trail, dedicated in 1989, as a pioneering project that helped lay the groundwork for the state’s later trail network.

There is one practical catch: Van Buren County currently marks the museum temporarily closed, even though DNR’s trail page still describes it as open for tours. Treat the county’s museum page as the current status. For now, the reliable stop is the trailside depot and caboose, not an interior tour.