Railroad: Lake Superior and Ishpeming railroad

The Iron Cliffs Company fell under control of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company in 1890, and the Cleveland Cliffs Mining Company was formed in 1891. This gave the mining company the size and scale to control more of its costs. Rates for hauling ore on the DSS&A in particular, were thought to be too expensive and the railroad had difficulty providing cars in sufficient volume in the right place and the right time.

CCI decided to build their own line from mines to port and joined with the Pittsburg & Lake Angeline Iron Company (minority owner) to do so  CCI held a 75% interest in the new road. [LSIOR]. The LS&I was surveyed, built and opened from Presque Isle to Negaunee and Ishpeming in August, 1896. They primarily served the CCI and P&LA mines in all parts of the region. Branches were built to Humboldt and Republic, and south to the New Volunteer (later Empire) and the old Tilden Mine (via the C&NW).

The Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company also wanted to control timber operations (used to shore up underground mines) and coal which provided fuel for hoists, coal for heating of townsites, and electric power generation. They began purchasing and/or extending logging railroads around the Marquette range.

In 1911, the Munising, Marquette & Southeastern was merged into the Munising railway and the Munising railway was merged with the LS&I in 1923. In 1990, the Wisconsin Central bought the remainder of the line from Munising Jct. to Munising. This later became a CN line.

Chartered: 1893

Built → Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroad → Cliffs Natural Resources

Built: 1896 - First train August 12, 1896

Operated for 128+ years, continuing.

Became: Cliffs Natural Resources, then back to LS&I.

Ore dock replaced by concrete dock in 1911-1912.

Reference: [MRRC] [LSI1]

Photo Info: LS&I #32 awaiting assignment at the Presque Isle roundhouse in 1958. [Mark Andersen collection].

Notes

The building of the LS&I was a game changer, a disrupter for the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic and to a lesser extend the Chicago & North Western. Over 120 years of operation, the LS&I remains the only iron ore/pellet carrier in the Marquette region.

In the 1960's, the LS&I runs four types of trains: 1) They operate mine run transfers between individual mines and Eagle Mills; 2) they transfer ore loads from Eagle Mills to the ore dock; 3) they move ore from the yard at Presque Isle to the dock itself; and 4) they transfer ore in an "all rail" ore movement to Eben (Soo Line) and Little Lake (C&NW).

All track on the LS&I is considered "yard limits", eliminating flagging responsibilities but they operate at restricted speed, 20-25 mph. 

Time Line

1896. The labor unions are alleged to have a "club in soak" for John M. Eagan, recently appointed assistant president of the Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroad, and may attempt to delay the completion of the road. Mr. Eagan is given credit for the failure of the great Chicago railroad strike. [IWT-1896-0509]

1896. May. The workmen on the construction of the LS&I railway at Negaunee found a fine deposit of non-Bessemer ore in a cut near the Jackson Mine last Saturday. Agent Mitchell, of the Jackson company says the route of the railway will be changed and the mine opened up if the ore proves valuable. Assays are not being made. [IWT-1896-0201]

1896. June. The first train over the new Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroad arrived at Ishpeming Monday. [DFP-1898-0603]

1896. October. The Superior Iron Co. at Ishpeming has begun to remove 22 dwellings from the territory over which the LS&I railway will be extended. [YEX-1896-1009]

1897. The LS&I commenced hauling ore over the Ishpeming extension of its line yesterday. [IWT-1897-0501]

1898. The first passenger train over the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad went over the line, carrying prominent citizens of Ishpeming and Negaunee. [BHN-1898-0611] The road was built in 1896 and until now has been purely an ore hauling road, but legal steps have been taken by the grantors of the right of way to force it to do a passenger business. The case is now in court. [LAS-1898-0604]

1898. December. Passenger service on the LS&I from Ishpeming to Marquette has been suspended and will not be resumed until spring. [IWT-1898-1210]

Late 1890's. The LS&I had two major main line changes during its life. In 1890's, a new main line was constructed from the north side of Negaunee to the south side of Ishpeming (crossing the DSS&A and CNW on an overhead bridge 300 yards west of downtown Negaunee. This allowed the old main line which extended from near Queens Mine to Ishpeming along the Jackson Mine, to be truncated to allow other mines in the area to operate.

1900. CCI purchases the Munising Company, which owned vast tracts of forest in the central upper peninsula as well as a railroad which extended west from Munising to Little Lake and a connection with the C&NW. CCI wanted access to these forests for charcoal and cribbing in the mines it owned. In the same year, the LS&I also formed the Marquette & Southeastern Railway to connect its two lines from Marquette to Larson (15 miles east of Little Lake).

1902. A four mile long branch track has been built to the Maas mine. Mostly 80 lb. rail is used on the railroad. [MCR-1903]

1903. The LS&I owned the United Dock Company.

1903. SNAPSHOT. The railroad operated 19.42 miles of track from Presque Isle to Ishpeming, plus 11.43 miles of spurs and sidings. The LS&UI employs 9 engineers, 9 firemen, 3 conductors, 6 brakemen, 30 laborers 60 shopmen and 13 yardmen. It owns 14 locomotives, 4 8-wheel passenger cars, 20 platform cars, 490 ore cars and 4 conductors' way cars. All are equipped with power brakes and automatic couplers as required by law. Top three  freight categories by ton in 1903 were ore (94%); Bituminous coal (4%) and iron, pig and bloom (1%). The road has 23 miles of telegraph line, owned by the road.

1906. The Munising Railway built a branch from Little Lake to the CCI mine at Princeton, via Gwinn. It should be noted that the LS&I built one of the last logging railroads east into the forests of Alger County from Cousino to Sunrise Landing in 1957.

1911. The Munising Ry. and the M&SE were combined (Munising, Marquette & Southeastern) and in 1924 all railroad holdings were consolidated as the Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroad.

1913. Miss Stella Bohmann has been named as "the prettiest working girl of Marquette, Michigan". She is telephone operator in the offices of the Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroad. [DET-1913-0106]

1915. The LS&I is handling a larger tonnage than either the South Shore or the Northwestern railways, and the bulk of shipments are being made from Cleveland-Cliffs properties. There has been a shortage of cars on the LS&I for some time, although the company has more than 1,200 in use on the Marquette and Swanzey ranges. [EMP-1915-0801]

1916. The Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroad has placed an order for four large locomotives for April delivery. Each will weigh 279,000 pounds with tender. On account of these large engines many of the culverts and bridges are being rebuilt. [PHTH-1916-0320]

1920. August Syverson, superintendent of the Ann Arbor railroad will at once become the superintendent of the Marquette, Munising and Southeastern and the Lake Superior & Ishpeming railroads with headquarters in Marquette. He has been with the Ann Arbor for 7 years, and before that was a trainmaster on the C&NW. [OT-1920-0319]

1939. William G. Mather, president of the LS&I announced the election of August Syverson of Marquette as vice-president and general manager of the road, effective August 19. Mr. Syverson has been assistant General Manager since 1929, and fills the post left vacant by the death of H. R. Harris, who died June 5th. 

In the summer of 1892, Mr. Syverson began his railroad career with the C&NW at Norwalk, WI as a station helper and as telegraph operator in 1893. He served as train dispatcher for that company at Chicago, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac and Huron, SD. He later became chief train dispatcher of the Wisconsin Division at Chicago and was promoted to trainmaster of the Iowa division at Council Bluffs, Clinton and Belle Plaine. In February 1913, he resigned to accept a position as superintendent of the Ann Arbor railroad at Owosso, MI remaining there until April, 1920 when he resigned to accept the superintendency of the LS&I. He became assistant general manager in February, 1929. [EDP-1939-0902]

1940s. The branch from Williams Crossing to Camp 15 is abandoned.

1945. The MPSC allows the LS&I to run light engines without a flagman between West Yard (Presque Isle) and Ishpeming. The LS&I advised that they do not have any passenger trains regularly scheduled between Marquette and Ishpeming; that all trains, except mixed trains, handle iron ore cars, which is the principal commodity hauled; that a review of light engine movements for the year 1944 between Marquette and Ishpeming disclosed that 133 light engine movements were made, and that the time consumed making these trips was from 40 minutes to one hour and 10 minutes; that the number of engines used in loading and assembling iron ore at mines varies frequently depending entirely on boat service and is the determination of the number of engines assigned each day to that service, and that, when light engines arrive at destination, they enter yard service.

Therefore, yard switchmen are assigned to the engines and the road flagmen relieved. There is no other road duty that can be assigned to the road flagmen. The Commission was further advised, that if the railroad is relieved from providing a flagman on light engines they will relieve the engine crew from flagging by a positive block by train order and will also relieve the fireman from operating switches at West Yard and Ishpeming Yard in connection with these movements.

1950's. LS&I switches all ore in company owned mines. They interchange with the C&NW at Euclid Yard and the C&NW no longer switches mines in the region. [LSIOR]

August 14, 1953. The petition of the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad Company for permission to discontinue passenger service between Marquette and Big Bay was uncontested Thursday. F.M. Pierce, Michigan Public Service Commission Director of Railroad Division, Lansing, granted the request at a hearing that was held at 9:30 in the Court House. The hearing lasted only 10 minutes.

1950's. During the 1950's-1960's, the LS&I created a plan to build a new ore line to an area north of Gladstone, for the purpose of replacing C&NW as Cleveland Cliff's ore carrier to Lake Michigan. The plan was to use the LS&I's line from Marquette to Eben Junction (junction with the Soo Line). They then tried to purchase the Soo Line's Eben Junction branch to Rapid River, and then a short new track from Rapid River south along the Garden Peninsula to a new ore stacking area and dock in Sterling Harbor, opposite Gladstone on Lake Michigan's Little Bay de Noc. [EDP-1956-1126] Ed. Note: In an article about the proposal in [EDP] the iron company tried to convince the home and cottage owners that the ore stacking yard and dock wouldn't be objectionable because the dock is electrically operated and no steam locomotives would be used. They said the 70 people who live near their Marquette dock have never been objectionable. Readers... can you imagine living for years on the Garden Peninsula and having an industrial ore dock built nearby?

This new line was contested in the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). The Soo Line was unwilling to sell the Eben Junction branch, but was willing to half interest in exchange for Soo Line trackage rights from Eben Junction to Marquette. This would have brought a fourth railroad to the Marquette iron range. The plan was never implemented, and ore to the Lake Michigan port of Escanaba by the C&NW.

1957. The railroad claims at an ICC hearing that the need for a new type of loading dock at Gladstone to handle fragile, low-grade ore prompted the railroad to seek an outlet on Lake Michigan. [DFP-1957-0404] Ed. Notes: A new C&NW ore dock was built in 1970.

1958. The Big Bay branch is abandoned. (It was sold to Marquette & Huron Mountain in 1963)

1960's. SNAPSHOT. The LS&I handles 5.5 million tons of ore annually in the region. They operate 19 diesel electric locomotives and 3,000 pieces of rolling stock. Ore cars carry between 50 and 90 tons. They maintain yards at Humboldt, Ishpeming (Euclid Yard), Negaunee (Harris Yard), Eagle Mills and at the Presque Isle dock north of Marquette. Their ore dock is 1,200 feet long and holds 50,000 tons of ore. [LSIOR]

1965. The line from Princeton to Gwinn is abandoned.

1965. The second major main line change occurred in 1965 and was a consolidation of the LS&I, DSS&A and C&NW lines along US-41, from near Eagle Mills west to Euclid Yard in Ishpeming. This allowed abandonment of the 2nd LS&I main line in Negaunee, as well as the C&NW and DSS&A main lines through the middle of downtown Ishpeming.

1965. The line from Hartho to Sunrise Landing plus Myren to Williams Crossing and Youngs is abandoned, as is the line from Gwinn to Little Lake. Part of this line, from Cousino to Sunrise Landing near Grand Marias is only seven years old. [BHHP]

1965. The LS&I transports iron ore pellets from the Humboldt Mine via Manistique to Detroit. The pellets were weighed in Ishpeming. [EDP-1965-0209]

1973. A Calumet organization known as Trans Northern proposes to purchase the LS&I line between Munising and Eben Junction, to operate passenger excursions. Trans Northern is owned and operated by the Keweenaw Central excursion line, which operated excursion trains between 1967 and 1971. The line would also serve the Kimberly Clark plant in Munising. [EDP-1973-0228]