Railroad: Potts Logging Railway Company, The

Built→ Potts Logging Railway → Au Sable & Northwestern railroad

Built: 1887

Operated for at least 4 years.

Sold: 1891 - to Au Sable & Northwestern

Reference: [MRRC]

Photo Info: A Potts Logging train at an unknown location in northern Ogemaw County around 1890. [CMU Clark Library]

Notes

This was a logging railroad which brought logs from the forest to a roll-away on the Au Sable river in Potts (McKinley). Originally, it was not connected to the national rail network. Later, the main line was extended in parallel to the Au Sable River to the town of Au Sable on Lake Huron.

Time Line

1884. May 22. Logging railroad wanted at once. 1 large engine, 1 small engine, 40 cars and 10 miles of steel rail. Address to S. M. Cutcheon,. Trustee, J. E. Potts Estate, 5 Buhl Block.

1884. D. Cameron, contractor for the J.E. Potts Lumber Co. started 8 barges down the river (from Grayling) on Tuesday, loaded with railroad iron and other supplies. He expects to send as any more on Friday. [CCA-1884-0918]

1887. The Potts Logging Railway purchased the narrow gauge 3' railroad operations by John E. Potts and the Potts Salt and Lumber Company in Montmorency and Oscoda counties. [MRRC] reports the lines being on the north bank of the Au Sable River in Section 15, T26N R4E going to the north line of Oscoda County. Also, from the same location to Damon, with branches. The original Potts line is described as 14 miles from McKinley (also known as Potts) southwesterly.

1887. September 3. Au Sable. The strike on the Au Sable & Northwestern Railroad has been settled and trains are running as usual today. The men go to work at same rates as formerly. Milo Davis, the superintendent, refused to return, and Monte Huriburt, the former train dispatcher, takes his place, which is satisfactory to the men. The men got all they asked for excepting Davis. [DFP-9/4/1887]

1888. May. The J. E. Potts Salt & Lumber Co. are banking daily half a million feet of logs on their logging ralroad in Oscoda County. [DFP-1888-0524]

1889. On the afternoon of August 25 the men on the Au Sable & Northwestern railroad went out on a strike, the J. E. Potts Salt and Lumber Company, owners of the road, attempting to make a reduction in wages and also to lengthen the hours of work. This difficulty was settled and the men went to work the next morning without loss of any time. Last night they went out again. The men state that the company again attempted to reduce their wages, this time even more than before. This, Milo Davis, superintendent of the road, refused to do and sent in his resignation, and the men went out with him. 

Twelve logging trains are laid up, the men running their trains to the lower end of the road, three miles from here (Au Sable] and leaving them. Two hundred men are out of employment. they are all quiet and orderly and no violence is intended or expected. The men claim that the pay they were receiving was lower than regular railroad wages. The passenger train ran today as usual. The company is very reticent about giving any cause for the trouble and deny that they ordered a reduction in wages. [DFP-1889-0901]

1890. The J. E. Potts railroad recently drew a loaded logging train of 100 cars using four engines. It was exactly a mile from the front engine to the last car. [INR-1890-1220]

1890. The J. E. Potts Salt & Lumber Company, one of the biggest lumber and salt concerns in the country, Tuesday filed chattel mortgages upon its property in Oscoda, Iosco County, aggregating $600,000. The concern owns several saw-mills at Oscoda and several thousand acres of pine and valuable timber in Michigan. The liabilities of the company are placed at $1.5 million, hundreds of thousands which is secured. The assets are placed at $8 million but this includes the railroad and mill property which would be very hard to realize. The company owns about 8,000,000 feet of stumpage, of which the Federal Bank of Toronto has a contract lien, the original amount being $600,000. The concern failed in 1889 and since then has been doing business on borrowed capital.

The company owns the largest sawmill in the world, as well as a magnificent domain of Michigan forests. The Potts company practically owns a town of 600 souls called Potts. The Potts railroad runs from Oscoda to somewhere in Montmorency County. About forty miles of the system from Oscoda and Au Sable to Potts are operated regularly, and have passenger trains and do mail service. The rest is simply in logging traffic, and from the terminus permeates in various directions into the woods. [WPAL-1890-1128]

1891. Honorable J. B. Tubble, of East Tawas, expresses the opinion that the preferred creditors of the J. E. Potts Lumber Company will receive about thirty cents on the dollar of their claims, and those not preferred will get nothing. [DFP-1891-0904]

1891. The H. M. Loud & Sons Lumber Company, of Au Sable, which recently purchased the Potts logging railroad has laid ten miles of new track to reach 35,000,000 feet of pine owned by the company and other firms at Oscoda, and logs are now being cut and hauled. [DFP-1891-0904]

1891. The Potts' railroads were purchased by the Au Sable & Northwestern railway who continued to operate it as a 3' narrow gauge railroad. There were 54 miles of railroad when purchased, from Au Sable to Comins along with branch lines.