Time Line - 1866

Last Year | Next Year

• STATISTIC: Miles of railroads in operations in Michigan this year: 1,039. Miles built this year 98. [MRC/72]

• January 1: First train into Schoolcraft on the Schoolcraft & Three Rivers Railroad. [MT]

• June 25: Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw RR completes line from Mason to Lansing. [MCR-75]

• April 26: A fire at the foot of Brush Street burns the office, freight and passenger depots, as well as the ferry "Windsor". Eighteen lives were lost. [MRC-6/1973]

• September 19: Representatives of car departments of 11 railroads met at Adrian, agreeing on a general meeting of "car masters" in Springfield, Mass. on 5/15/1867, resulting in the founding of the Association of American Railroads. [MDOT]

• December: The Lake Shore completes its passenger depot at Chicago, a wood and stone structure at Van Buren and LaSalle Streets.

• Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana train crews go out on strike to protest conditions which were "unjust and unbearable", as well as pay now allowed for work performed. Incidents of violence took place. When a Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago engineer attempted to take an engine out of the engine house at LaPorte, he was set upon by strikers, dragged from the cab and hauled out of town. The strike was brief. [LS]

• The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company opens stamping mills and a reclamation plant in Lake Linden. [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