Time Line - 1860

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• STATISTIC: Miles of railroads in operations in Michigan this year: 779.  [MRC/72]

• Summer: Lewis Cass, the "foremost citizen of Detroit for a generation", addresses members of the "three months' regiment" at the D&M depot when the regiment returned to Detroit. [MRC-6/1973]

• September: Flint & Pere Marquette finishes construction from Saginaw 20 miles south towards Flint. [MRRC]

• November: Amboy, Lansing and Traverse Bay Railroad opens line from Owosso to Laingsburg. [MRRC]

• December: The Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad is the first main-line railroad to penetrate Michigan's white pine forests. They began hauling logs from the Crockery Creek valley to Hunter Savidge's sawmill in Mill Point adjacent to Spring Lake. [MH-11/1993]

• December 31: Michigan Railroad Mileage Totaled 700 miles. [MDOT/AAD]

• Michigan Central Railroad builds a 3-story brick depot in Ypsilanti - [MRC-0988]

• Passengers could travel from Boston to St. Louis in about 48 hours. [STOV]

• Passenger train conductors and brakemen were furnished uniforms by the railroad. During the Civil War, these were stovepipe hats but these soon gave way to caps. [AAD]

• Nationally, there are 30,000 miles of railroad track. [STOV]

• George Pullman builds a plant in Detroit to manufacture his Palace and Sleeping Cars. Later, Pullman moved the entire operation to Chicago. [AAD]

• Detroit's population: 45,619 [D18/BOM] 

Time line Key:

• Railroad event in Michigan
• Event relating to mining
• Event related to car ferries
• Event outside of Michigan
• Improvement in Technology
• Railroad built or extended
• Railroad abandoned and/or removed
• Economic panic or depression