Railroad: Hecla Belt Line Railroad Company

Built → Hecla Belt Line Railroad Co. → Bay City & Battle Creek Railway (1912) → MCRR

Built: 1902 by Hecla Portland Cement investors

Operated for 10 years.

Became: Bay City & Battle Creek Railway in 1912

Reference: [MRRC]

Notes

The Hecla Belt Line Railroad Company was built by the owners of the Hecla Portland Cement Company, which had a plant on the north shore of the Saginaw River, at what is now the east end of Wilder Road in North Bay City.

The purpose of the railroad was to bring coal from the Wenona and Auburn areas east to the plant, as well as marl and shale from Ogemaw County (via the Michigan Central at Wenona) to the plant to be used in the production of Portland Cement.

Over its ten years of operation, the plant was a financial failure and operations discontinued about 1912 and the equipment and property sold off. The railroad was conveyed to the Bay City & Battle Creek railroad (a Michigan Central subsidiary which also ran from near Wenona Yard west to Midland).

Sources:

• Michigan Railroads and Railroad Companies, Graydon Meints, Michigan State University Press, 1992
• Geological Survey of Michigan, Clays and Shales, by H. Reis, 1902
• The Michigan Miner, 1902.
• State of Michigan, Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 1907
• Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record, 1912.

Time Line

1902. Julius Stroh, Theodore D. Buhl, Lem W. Bower, James N. Wright and U.R. Lorenger today filed with Secretary State Warner articles of association of the Hecla Belt Line Railroad Co., capital $175,000, organized to operate a line in Bangor, Monitor and Frankenlust townships, Bay county, 20 miles in length. [LSJ-1902-0423]

1902. The Michigan Railroad Commission approves maps filed by the Hecla Belt Line Railroad Co. showing the location of the route of its proposed line in and near Bay City, with crossings of the Michigan Central in three places, the Detroit & Mackinac, the Cincinnati, Saginaw & Mackinaw division of the Grand Trunk, and the Bay Cities Consolidated Street railway. [PHTH-1902-0523]

1902. George Roach, a switchman on the Hecla Belt Line railroad, was in the act of staking a car at the west terminus of the road, when the stake broke in such a manner as to strike him back of the head, cutting a scalp would requiring 14 stitches, and fracturing his skull. The attending physicians think he will live. [DFP-1902-1226]

1902. The railroad has about two miles of road in operation west from the Hecla Cement Company plant on Saginaw Bay, with interlocked crossings of the D&M, H&W (at North Bay City) and MC (at Tower 12). [MCR-1903]

1903. The Hecla Belt Line Railroad company has been turned over to the Detroit Trust company as receiver for the Hecla Cement & Coal Co. The stock was practically owned by the cement company. The road was bonded for $200,000 to the trust company, the Hecla company guaranteeing them. [LSJ-1903-1029]

1911. The Hecla company, a $1 million Portland cement manufacturing concern yesterday applied to the Wayne courts for voluntary dissolution, because under present trade conditions and railroad rates, it could not operate at a profit to its stockholders. Stockholders in the company are wealthy Detroit people. The company's offices are at 808 Penobscot building, Detroit. The petition for voluntary dissolution was brought by Julius Stroh, Dexter M. Ferry Jr., and John F. Bush, manager. In addition to the Bay City factory, it owns real estate in Iosco and Shiawassee counties, West Bay City and Alpena County. It owns a dock and slip in Bay County. Hearing will be on or before October 10, 1911. [DFP-1911-0613]

1913. The Hecla Belt Line railroad, about three miles long, has been purchased by the Michigan Central, according to report here today. The road connects the defunct Hecla Cement Co.'s plant with the MC tracks. The purchase price is said to be $50,000. Most of the machinery in the old plant has been sold to a Kansas cement concern. [DET-1913-0114]