Station: Newberry, MI

Newberry was founded about 1882 as the logging headquarters of the Vulcan Furnace Company. It is the county seat of Luce County and first called Grant's Corner. It was home to a state psychiatric hospital which is now a prison. The town became a village in 1885.

Photo Info: Top, the DSS&A depot in Newberry [Alan Loftis collection]. 2nd photo, a postcard view of the same depot with a train. 3rd photo, a 1978 shot of the depot [Charlie Whipp] and 4th photo the depot in 2002. [Dale Berry]. 4th photo, a fire at the Newberry depot possibly in 1907. [Alan Loftis collection]

Notes

The DSS&A had a two mile siding south off the main line to the state hospital. The "furnace company" also had a branch line north off the DSSA yard in Newberry. [DSSM]

From the Newberry News, 11/23/1889: "Newberry DSS&A Depot An 'Old Wood Shed'.  Railroad managers sometimes forget their obligations to the public. They are not granted valuable franchises simply to enrich the projectors but also to accommodate the public along the line. Wonder if there isn't some way of compelling the DSS&A to build a depot for the accommodation of the public at this place instead of the old wood-shed they are using. [Newberry News, 23 Nov, 1889]

Time Line

1907. DSS&A had a water tower at Newberry in 1907. [SSP1907]

1907. The Newberry station of the DSS&A was built in 1907. The small depot measures 20' by 60' with a hipped roof and overhanging eaves supported by wooden bracket. It is constructed of red sandstone and rests on a stone foundation, a rare design for a small station in the U.P. [UPM]

1918: The DSS&A had an agent as well as an operator/clerk during the day at this location. [TRT]

1942. May. Service on the main line of the DSS&A railroad was resumed tonight after a 22-hour tie-up caused when four cars of a freight train left the rails and piled up here last night. Wrecking crews were completing their work of placing the derailed cars back on the track. The freight train, consisting of 37 cars, had just pulled onto the main track from a siding after permitting a passenger train to pass, when the wheels of one car apparently buckled, observers said. Wheels were torn off the four cars which left the track, two of which nosed into deep mud along the right of way. No one was injured. [EDP-1942-0528]

2022. Fall. WATCO, the new operator of the former DSS&A line northwest of Trout Lake, builds a new engine house in Newberry. The railroad runs freight trains east (to Trout Lake) and west (to Munising) from here.

Industry

• Michigan Pole and Tie Co. (1925- 1961+) - large handler of northern white cedar polies  for railroads and utilities.
• Superior Iron & Chemical Co. furnace (across the tracks to the north of the depot) - in 1907