Alpena and Northern Railroad

The Alpena and Northern Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated briefly in northern Michigan during the 1890s.

Alpena and Northern Railroad
The company's line from Alpena to Hawks. Not shown: the short-lived extension to Lake Jackson
Overview
Dates of operation1893 (1893)1895 (1895)
SuccessorDetroit and Mackinac Railway
Technical
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in)
Track length68.7 miles (110.6 km)[1]
Route map

mi
Dover
Gower
28.6
Connors Camp No. 2
23.9
Valentine Lake
20.5
McPhee
13.3
Rainy Lake
4.0
Hurst
0.0
152.7
LaRocque
149.7
South Rogers City
148.5
Metz
147.0
Nowicki
144.7
143.5
Posen
140.4
Polaski
135.2
Bolton
133.2
Cathro
124.8
Alpena

The company incorporated on July 28, 1893, with the intention of building an 85-mile (137 km) line from Alpena to Mackinaw City, on the south shore of the Straits of Mackinac. On November 18 of that same year the company opened a line from Alpena to LaRocque (now Hawks), for a total length of 35 miles (56 km).[2][3] In Alpena, the railroad used the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena Railroad's station on the north bank of the Thunder Bay River.[4] In 1894, the Alpena and Northern extended its line another 28.6 miles (46.0 km) southwest from LaRocque into Montmorency County.[5]

On April 16, 1895, the A&N was bought by the Detroit and Mackinac Railway and ceased to exist as an independent company.[2] Its original main line between Alpena and LaRocque became part of the D&M's Northern Division, which reached Cheboygan in 1904.[6] The Lake State Railway, successor to the D&M, abandoned the line in the early 2000s.[7] The section southwest of LaRocque, known variously as the Valentine Branch or Jackson Lake Branch, was abandoned south of Hurst in 1903 as the logging industry moved on to other areas.[8] The D&M abandoned the remainder of that branch in 1923.[9]

Notes

  1. Michigan Railroad Commission (1895), p. 5.
  2. Meints (1992), p. 36.
  3. Michigan Railroad Commission (1894), p. 4.
  4. "Untitled". Alpena Argus. December 6, 1893. p. 3. Retrieved April 22, 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  5. Meints (2005), pp. 149–150.
  6. Meints (2005), p. 148.
  7. "Lake State Railway Company--Abandonment Exemption--in Alpena and Presque Isle Counties, MI" (PDF). Surface Transportation Board. February 22, 2000. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
  8. "New D&M branch to Hillman now in actual service". Alpena Evening News. December 20, 1909. p. 10. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
  9. Meints (2005), p. 150.

References

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