Station: Alpha, MI

Alpha Village is located in southeastern Iron County and began as a mining settlement. The Mastodon Mine opened in 1882 several miles south of Alpha. This venture did not survive the Panic of 1893. In 1910 the Pickands-Mather Company began large scale exploratory operations in the area.

The Alpha settlement was platted north of the operations by the Nevada Land Company. Streets radiated east, west and south from the Balkan Mine which began operating in 1915. The town was given the name for a letter of the Greek alphabet, one of several towns like this in Michigan. It became a Village in 1914 when development peaked. A village water system was also installed in 1914, as was electric lighting.

Six passenger trains a day stopped in Alpha in 1914 on the C&NW line which had been extended in 1882 through the area. By the early 1930's, all mining activity had ceased in the area. [Iron County Historical Society information].

Notes

Time Line

1907. A big logging railroad will be built in Mastodon township by Sawyer Goodman & Co. in conjunction with the CM&StP railway company. The Milwaukee people will build about a mile of track up to the immense tract of timber owned by Sawyer-Goodman and that concern will take the road the balance of the distance.

The road will branch off the Milwaukee Road between the Dunn mine and the creek and will run southwest through the Rosengreen property and near the Silverwood farm, approaching the SG timber at the center of Section 2, T43N-R32W. It is understood that the first mile of the track up to the edge of the timber will be substantially built but from that point out the road will be purely a logging road. The SG timber will take 3-5 years to consume. The logs will be moved using the logging railroad's locomotive, and then on the main line by the MILW who will take it to town and then haul to Marinette. This will result in a daily train load out of this station and with the extra switching made necessary will necessitate the stationing of an engine here year around. [DD-1907-0810]

1914. Residents of the future Alpha are voting to become a village. The special election will be held on June 16 at the Dunn Mine warehouse in Mastodon Township. [DD-1914-0523]

1916. February 28. Jacob Holmes, the seven year old son of the township highway commissioner, was run over by a Northwestern train leaving Alpha at 3:35 last afternoon. According to his eleven-year-old brother, the two boys were excused from school early on account of Washington's birthday and had decided to walk home by way of the railroad track instead of the usual road.

They had just passed the Judson Mine office when they heard the train approaching. Both boys stepped off the track, but the train in passing blew off such a large amount of steam that the boys were unable to see. Jacob became bewildered and ran toward the train and fell under the wheels of one of the passing coaches. William ran a quarter of a mile after the train and reached the body, the head and the left arm which were severed from the body. The rest of the body was badly mangled. He picked up the body and dismembered portions and laid them beside the track.

Judson mine employees ran down the track after the older boy. The body was taken to the Judson mine office where an inquest was held at 7:30 o'clock the same day. The dead boy was in second grade at the Porter school and was well-known in Alpha. The whole town was in great shock. [DD-1916-0229]

1916. The C&NW builds a new station here. The track layout here is changed. [MCR-1916]

1918. The C&NW had an agent operator here on the day shift. [TRT]

1919. The new railroad connections has increased the travel out of Alpha. Persons going south or north buy straight through from Alpha now instead of going to Crystal Falls to get tickets. [EE-1919-0614]

1938. Alpha school authorities reported that six pupils who had been snowbound in the Mastodon school since Monday (for 6 days) returned to their homes in the Dunn mine location after plows had cleared a way through 10-foot drifts. [EDP-1938-0129]

See Also (click on link below):

Alpha Mine