Railroad: Ontonagon and Brule River Railroad Company, The

This railroad was built east from the shore of Lake Superior at Ontonagon in 1882, reaching the mines near Rockland in Ontonagon county. After eight years of operation, it was sold to the Milwaukee & Northern railroad to become part of the Milwaukee Road and a connection with Mass City, Sidnaw and Channing.

Built → Ontonagon & Brule River Railroad → Milwaukee & Northern

Built: 1882 - Ontonagon to 20 miles east (to near Rockland)

Operated: 8 Years

Sold: 1890 - to Milwaukee & Northern.

Reference: [MRRC]

Notes

The O&B name continues to be used by the Escanaba & Lake Superior crews when referring to this line.

Time Line

1881. July. The formal breaking of ground for the Ontonagon & Brule River Railroad took place on Monday evening, July 11, [1881] at 7:00 p.m. for a week past, it has been announced that from 100 to 1,000 men were to arrive to commence the construction of the road, but no men came until Monday. No officers of the road were present. [DFP-18881-0722]

1882. February. Governor Jerome to-day passed over the first twenty miles of the Ontonagon & Brule River Railroad, and examined the same with a view to its acceptance. The Governor arrived at Rockland at noon, accompanied by W. B. Williams, State Railroad Commissioner, Angus Smith, President of the road and others. After dinner they were driven to the train in waiting. they first passed over the eight miles of road lying east of Rockland and back, and then to the Village of Ontonagon and back to Rockland. On Sunday morning the Governor and party took their departure by stage to L'Anse where they had a special train awaiting them. The road was described by the governor as being first-class and no doubt a certificate of completion and acceptance will be awarded to the company. [DFP-1882-0210]

1888. The old Ontonagon and Brule, over which there has been such a row in Congress [over land grants] and among the settlers in the Upper Peninsula for the past five years, is still standing what there is of it. It begins at Ontonagon and starts out in a wavering, uncertain way, for nowhere in particular. Twenty-two miles from Ontonagon it has apparently found its destination at Rockland, and stops there. A large portion of the rail was laid in midwinter over stumps, brush heaps and deep drifts of snow. An engine or two was run over the  line without any fatal mishap to the engineer, and the builders hastened to claim their big land grant. They might have got it too, but an amateur photographer happened along and took a number of views of the ":railroad" where the track was elevated at an angle of twenty degrees to run over a pine stump or brush-heap, or where it had sunk at a corresponding angle when the snow, used as ballast, had thawed in the spring. [DFP-1888-0514]

1889. The Milwaukee & Northern secured control of the O&B railroad. The road was extended 46 miles from Hill Creek to Rockland, the southern terminus of the  O&B. Steel is all laid on this extension and regular train service will be put on in the spring. [DFP-1889-1017]