Railroad: Iron Range & Huron Bay Railroad Company

The Iron Range & Huron Bay railroad construction began in 1890. The goal of the railroad was to bring iron ore north from the Champion mine to a new ore dock on the Huron Bay of Lake Superior, a distance of 28 miles. Previously to this plan, ore was shipped via a longer route on the DSS&A to docks in Marquette. The new railroad would also provide transportation for a slate quarry at Arvon as well as logging operations around Mount Arvon. The line connected with the DSS&A at Champion.

Construction was difficult due to the grades at Mt. Arvon and the granite sub-surface of the line. The railroad took several years to complete because of the necessary granite rock cuts and typhoid fever which broke out among the crews at camps created for construction. Many workers died. Work often stopped for a lack of money and then restarted. The line and dock were completed in 1893. The dock contained two million board feet of lumber and used 3,000 pilings. Two locomotives were delivered on the north end which arrived by lake steamer. [TTUP]

On the first trip south, the track gave way and the locomotive rolled onto its side in the Peshekee River. It was the one and only train to use the railroad. [TTUP]

The line and dock was subsequently dismantled and sold.

Built → Iron Range & Huron Bay Railroad → Abandoned

Built: 1890-1893

Not operated commercially.

Abandoned: Shortly thereafter. 1893.

Reference: [MRRC]

This line was built but never operated. Thee railroad included a large timber ore dock on Lake Superior.

Photo Info: top, Iron Range & Huron Bay Locomotive 301. [BHS] 2nd photo, the enormous ore dock and timber approach trestle at Huron Bay on Lake Superior in the 1890's.

Notes

Timeline:

1890. October 8. Fanke & Company is shipping bridge timber by rail this week to the IR&HB. [LAS-1890-1-25]

1890. There is talk of extending the IR&HB to Michigamme this coming season. [LAS-1890-1025] Note: The railroad was not extended.

1890. C. H Buhl of Detroit is noted as the President of the IR&HB. The DSS&A gives optimism about the new road. [DFP-1890-1124]

1890. December. There is 18" of snow near Mt. Arvon. Gus Olander, a contractor, reports that work is progressing favorably. [LAS-1890-1213]

1891. May. Notices in newspapers indicate that contractors are leaving and not responsible for debts. [LAS-1891-05]

1891. A tour of the road indicates that 1,300 men are working on the right-of-way. This will increase to 2,000 as work continues. [LAS-1891-0613] Many of the workers and foremen are from the lower peninsula.

1891. Work on the IR&HB is almost complete, with the exception being the Summit cut still requiring six months more work. [LAS-1891-0815]

1891. August. A dispute between the railroad and the Michigan Slate Company arises over $36,000 owned to the slate company. Other creditors to the IR&HB also claim monies owed. The newspaper described ass of this as "a bad mess". [LAS-1891-0829]

1891. September. Work on the IR&HB railroad has been abandoned for the winter. Mr. Milo Davis, chief engineer, is still in Detroit, but it is reported that all debts will be paid off. [LAS-1891-0912]

1891. September. Work on construction is to be resumed in the near future. Mr. Sanford Keeler, superintendent of the Flint & Pere Marquette railroad has been engaged as superintendent of construction of the new road. He is expected here [L'Anse] soon to take charge of the work of construction. Former contractor Mr. Dingman, having failed. We understand that the company is paying such of Mr. Dingman's time checks as are found to be correct. [LAS-1891-0926]

1892. April. There has been considerable illicit liquor selling in the vicinity of the Summit, on the IR&HB and Sheriff Carney made a trip out there this week for the purpose of gathering in the delinquents. The latter, however, had evidently been informed of his coming, for by the time he arrived they had taken to the woods and could not be found. They will be in the toils yet, unless they keep pretty quiet. [LAS-1892-0405]

1892. Two monster locomotives of the Brooks manufacture arrived here (L'Anse) for the Iron Range & Huron Bay railroad. They weigh about 85 tons each, and when standing beside some of the larger engines of the DSS&A railroad they look like giants in comparison. They will be taken to Huron bay on a steam barge. [LAS-1892-0514]

1892. W. E. Boyle, who served as engineer on the Michigan Slate Company's narrow gauge for several years, will take charge of No. 301 on the IR&HB railroad as soon as it lands on the rails. He was in town last Monday. [LAS-1892-0528]

1892. October. A gentleman well acquainted with the Lake Superior country, Hon. J. M. Turner of Lansing, declared to a Mining Journal reporter yesterday that the grandest view in the Upper Peninsula was from the "summit" on the new IR&HB railroad. Climbing the rugged walls of the great rock cut which was such an obstacle to the construction of the road at this point and standing 62 feet above the track one is 1,400 feet above Lake Superior. Huron and Keweenaw bays and Portage lake are spread out before him. He sees Calumet and the workings of the famous Calumet & Hecla, Tamarack and Osceola mines clearly, and also the great Quincy and Franklin hills while he looks down upon the whole length of the Slate river winding like a ribbon before him down its valley to the lake. This river starts near his feet in a stream no larger than a man's arm while a few steps in the other direction and one has crossed the back bone of the peninsula, the waters falling there flowing into the Peschecke on their way into Lake Michigamme and thence through the rivers to Lake Michigan. On a clear day the splendor of the view cannot be described; the opening of the new railroad within the next thirty days will bring into notice and some future Church or Bierstadt may spread it upon canvas. [Marquette Journal]

1893. September. At this point the railroad company has erected a modern ore dock at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. It is most substantially built with all modern improvements and appliances, is about 900 feet long and has 112 ore pockets, 56 on each side. The main approach is a trestle nearly 2,000 feet long and has a branch, a part of the "Y" approach, some 900 feet long. Although completed a year ago, not a pound of ore has been shipped over it. The road bed is substantially constructed and laid with the heaviest steel rails. The rolling stock consists of two monster locomotives and a lot of flat cars, supplied with air brakes, of 30 tons capacity. "What was this road built for", everybody asks. No one knows except the proprietors, and they won't tell. We won't either. 

At present, there is being nothing done on the road and the engines are housed upon in a shed on the merchandise dock. A town site was laid out here a couple of years ago, when the road was under construction, and a half dozen crude buildings constructed, among them a drug store and several saloons. None of these are now occupied. Only three families live here now, the head of one constituting the entire operating force of this great engineering folly, being employed in the capacity as watchman.

Huron Bay is a land locked harbor averaging a mile wide and about fifteen feet long. The native hardwood forests bring its banks all around and the scenery is inspiring in primitive beauty. [LAS-1893-0902]

1894. June. A deed of trust given by the IR&HB railroad to the Central Trust Co., of New York, as trustee. The deed was given in November, 1893 and is filed as a chattel mortgage to secure $600,000 worth of bonds of $1,000 each, drawing 5 per cent interest per annum, payable semi-annually, and running for fifty years. The bonds are to pay an indebtedness of $395,000 on the road, and the remainder of the proceeds are to be used to improve and extend the road.

The IR&HB road was originated by James M. Turner before his failure. The original plan was to have the road run from Huron Bay in the upper peninsula to Republic and Michigamme, but it was built only 37 miles to Champion and the Champion Mine. It is hoped by the issue of these bonds to finish the original line of the road as planned by Turner. It is provided in the deed that further bonds may be issued if necessary to build spurs, etc., but the cost of construction is not to exceed $18,000 per mile. C. H. Buhl, A. L. Stephens and other Detroit capitalists were interested in the road after Turner's failure. [DFP-1894-0606]

1894. June. The somewhat celebrated case of the Michigan Slate Co. of Baraga county, vs. the IR&HB railway company was confirmed by the Supreme Court this afternoon. The case involves a business experience of James M. Turner, of Lansing. Turner was president of the slate company and one of the three owners of the defendant railroad company. Milo David gave the slate company an order for a large amount of supplies which were delivered and consumed by the latter. The railroad company refused to pay the bill, claiming that the chief engineer had no authority to purchase the supplies, and that President Turner was simply making one hand wash the other. The slate company, however, sued and secured a judgment of about $30,000 which the Supreme Court today affirmed. [DFP-1894-0617]

1895. Road construction is completed. [MRL]

1895. The DSS&A reports that their main crosses over the IR&HB one mile west of Champion. The C&NW reported that their Michigamee Branch crosses the IR&HB at grade but no interlocking is mentioned. MCR-1895]

1900. August. A few weeks ago, this railroad with all its real estate, right-of-way, roadbed, bridges and the $200,000 dock at Huron Bay was sold to Frank C. Andrews, John Winter, and Dr. Lau of Detroit, for $110,000. This is a terrible shrinkage from the original cost, but the purchasers only want the rails. The roadbed, bridges, ties (rotten now) and the big dock will be abandoned. The right-of-way and real estate will be allowed to fall into the hands of the state for unpaid taxes.

"The road will be entirely torn up and the rails removed within thirty days", said Mr. Andrews in Detroit. "Our objective in buying it is to acquire the steel, which is a find 67-pound rail, and never had a train of cars run over it. The iron will be delivered at Oxford, to be used in completing our electric road there from Oxford to Flint and Romeo to Imlay City. All the steel we have on hand will be shipped to Grand Rapids, and we expect to have a large part of the road between Grand Rapids and Holland laid this fall.

"We acquire everything connected with the road, from the spikes to the land. Two large twelve-wheel Brooks engines, good as the day they were bought, costing $25,000, have been housed up all these years and we shall sell them, together with over twenty cars - all but the forty-two miles of steel, which is a much better grade than is usually used in suburban road building and will net us a low price and immediate delivery." [LAS-1900-0825]

1900. October. The steam-barge, A. D. Hayward, arrived in Detroit from Huron Bay Saturday morning last, and tied up at the foot of Bates street. Then began the unloading of one of the queerest cargoes ever carried on a ship. It was a railroad, rails, bolts, scrap iron, pickaxes, shovels, office furniture, safe, and all of the accessories of railroading, excepting cars and locomotives. This was the cargo from the IR&HB railroad which was laid nearly 10 years ago. It will be transferred to the electric line of the Detroit, Rochester, Romeo & Lake Orion railway out of Detroit. [LAS-1900-1006]

1900. October. Two locomotives which were part of the equipment of the IR&HB railroad, which was purchased in its entirety by a suburban electric railroad company in southern Michigan, have been sold to the Algoma Central railroad, now in the course of construction from Sault Ste. Marie northward toward Hudson Bay. DFP-1900-1022]

1901. John Campbell, general superintendent of the Detroit Construction company, the concern which is tearing down the large ore docks of the Huron Bay & Iron Range road at Huron Bay arrived in L'Anse from Detroit. He drove out to the scene of operations to view the progress of the work. [LAS-1901-0427]

1901. Road dismantled without ever being used. [MRL]