Location: Carpenter Junction, MI

Carpenter Junction was located on the Milwaukee Road Iron River branch about five miles west of Crystal Falls Junction. The Carpenter Branch left the main line to the Carpenter and other mines here.

Notes

This is about 1 mile west of Carpenter Mine Junction.

There is some evidence that the branch was graded but not railed east of this junction (MILW valuation track map, 1917)  Rather, they reached the Carpenter and other mines via the Shafer Branch from Crystal Falls.

Time Line

1920. November. A contract has been let to John Marsch of Iron Mountain to construct about a mile of track connecting the wye track at the Carpenter mine with the main line of the St. Paul just east of Fortune Lake (Carpenter Junction). The grading work will commence at once as it is designed to have the tracks ready for use when shipping season opens in the spring. When this track is completed the St. Paul ore trains will not enter Crystal Falls at all. Ore from the Odgers, Tobin, Carpenter, Dunn, Balkan and Judson mines will be hauled over this connection line to the main line and shot straight for Escanaba. In addition t the connecting track the company has secured sufficient room along this connecting line to show for several sidings where the ore trains will be made up. The new line will cross the county road a few rods east of where Dan Ross' house stands. Its building is made necessary by the fact that the present ore line of this company crosses above the Bristol pit and the recent cave necessitates the abandonment of the line. [DD-1920-1116]