Source: ‘he Mining Journal >>
Marquette, Mi.
July 19, 1890 Saturday

More Railroads

fhe upper peninsula is to have more railroads. For some time
reports have been floating about Detroit of a projected line from
Champion to Huron Bay and a week ago the report of filing of arti-
cles of incorporation for such a line was published. More author-
itative advices recently received indicate that the road will cer-
tainly be built. The distance is about 35 miles and the estimated
cost $15,000 per mile.

The Huron mountain district, in the northeast corner of Baraga
and northwest part of Marquette counties, has long been believed
to contain great mineral riches. It is also one of the roughest
and most inaccessible portions of the peninsula. The country
contains much valuable timber on varts of which loggers have al-
ready begun work.

The announcement of the building of the road, together with a
cutoff line to be built by the M&N from the neighborhood of Iron
Mountain to Sidnaw and the Schlesinger road now under construction
from Escanaba to Iron Mountain, gives rise to a very well ground-
ed suspicion that the M&N is preparing to gridiron that part of
the peninsula. That line is known to have made several attempts
to get into Marquette and once had apparently succeeded. The M&N
also seems to be on very friendly terms with the Schlesinger syn-
dicate.

A gentleman who has made considerable study of the railroad
situation said to a Mining Journal reporter yesterday, "Here is
a prediction; you can take it for what it is worth. The M&N is
working in harmony with the Schlesinger people on the line from
Escanaba to Iron Mountain. That road proposes to go into the ore
carrying business. It will not be forever content to have its
Ontonagon branch cut off from the rest of its lines. It will
build a cutoff from near Iron Mountain to Sidnaw either through
Crystal Falls or with a branch to that point with the extension
of the line from Escanaba to Iron Mountain up the range it will
become a formidable competitor of the C&NW for its heaviest
ore business. If that desirable a line can be run straight up
from Sidnaw to Portage Lake, tapping the copper country this
Huron Bay line seems a minor feature, but it will open up a
stretch of country hardly known as yet. I don't say all this
will be done in one year or two years, but I truly believe it
will be done. Speaking as a Marquette man I should like to see
the South Shore buy out the M&N, for then the railway facilities
of this town could be brought to a higher state of perfection
than they can be under the present arrangement."

DSSRA
IR&EB
M&N