Railroad: Huron & Western Railroad Company

This short railroad ran through north Bay City, from the D&M railroad bridge west to the vicinity of Tower 12 (south of the MC Wenona Yard). The line was believed to be built to tap coal fields northwest of Bay City. The company had branches to Wolverine Mines No. 2 and 3.

Built → Huron & Western Railroad → Pere Marquette railroad

Built: 1902 - from North Bay City west to coal mines.

Operated for 1 year.

Original owner: Handy Brothers, then to Saginaw Coal Co. in 1903.

Became: 1903 to the Pere Marquette railroad.

Reference: [MRRC]

Notes

This was known as the Wolverine Mine branch by the PM.

Time Line

1903. The Huron & Western Railroad company undertook to put in a diamond at the crossing of the Michigan Central at Bay City Thursday (at what would become Tower 12), and the latter road resisted by placing a locomotive across the right of way. An injunction was procured by the H&W which was unheeded. All traffic on the Mackinaw division is held up pending the settlement of the affair. [PHTH-1903-0124]

1903. SNAPSHOT: Aggregate length of all tracks was 13.5 miles. This likely was a  construction railroad for the Pere Marquette. The original board was from Detroit and there were only six stockholders, all from Michigan. General offices of the company were in Detroit. The road employed 1 engineer, one fireman, 1 conductor and 2 brakemen, and owned 2 locomotives, 2 passenger cars and one baggage car. The H&W had some passenger revenue in its first year of operation.

1903. The Handy Brothers Mining Co. has sold its entire property, consisting of two coal mines with an output of 1,500 tons daily, leases on 25,000 acres of coal lands, and the Huron & Western railroad, a line 11 miles long, connecting the mines with all railroads entering Bay City, to the Saginaw Coal Co., and parties affiliated with the latter concern. The deal approximates $500,000. The new owners will take possession next Saturday. [PHTH-1903-0811]

1903. The Saginaw Coal Co. and the Pere Marquette Coal Co. have combined under the presidency of H.C. Potter Jr. of Detroit, with S.T. Crapo as vice president. The combine now runs several Bay and Saginaw County mines. The Pere Marquette railroad company has purchased the Huron & Western railroad running to mines No. 1 and No. 2 in Bay County, which were formally operated by Handy Brothers, but are now in the combine. [BCE-1903-0817]

1904. March 26. Railroad service at Bay City suspended. The breaking of jams in the Saginaw river at Saginaw and elsewhere precipitated a flood that covered all of the lowlands south of Bay City and a big jam has formed at Zilwaukee. The Huron & Western mining train was unable to get in this evening, the bridge being two feet under water, and about 300 Pere Marquette miners are held away from their homes in the Bay cities. [DFP-1904-0326]