Location: Downtown Yard, Marquette, MI

Downtown Yard was a DSS&A railroad yard which ran parallel to the shore of Lake Superior south of downtown Marquette. The LS&I ran parallel to this yard and interchanged with the DSS&A here. From the north end of the yard, the DSS&A had their ore loading operations and dock, and turned west towards Negaunee. From the south end of the yard, the DSS&A headed along the lake to St. Ignace. The Marquette & Western railroad also left the DSS&A at the south end of this yard on a second route to Negaunee. This short lived railroad (the M&W) was quickly folded into the DSS&A and the railroad ran this line and their main line to Negaunee as "double track" running, with ore coming east on the main line and empties going back to the mines on the old M&W line.

Notes

Time Line

1891. A wreck in which a great deal of damage was done occurred about two miles west of Marquette. The DSS&A train was a special freight and pulled out of Marquette yard headed for Sidnaw, using the former Marquette & Western track. The cause, as told by Conductor Doran and Brakeman Gebo, who were in the caboose at the time was this:

When the train was well up the steep grade out of the city, it broke in two just ahead of the car next to the caboose. The caboose and this car at once started back down the grade at a high rate of speed towards Marquette, but were quickly stopped with the brakes on the caboose. Gebo got off with his lantern to flag the forward section of the train which he heard coming back down.

To his horror he discovered that the train had again broken in two and that the middle section, with no one to control it, was coming down upon him with frightful speed. The next moment a car heavily loaded with cedar posts struck the tail piece of the train and from there they continued down as far as the “Mackinaw” (DM&M Marquette) round house. The wreck was scattered in all directions, some of the cars running into several houses along the track. Fire immediately broke out in the caboose caused by the overturning of the stove which added to the destruction. Happily, no one was injured. [LAS-1891-1212]

1932. July. The Henry Cort, one of the few remaining whalebacks (boats) in operation on the Great Lakes, was an object of curiosity at the Marquette Dock company's dock Saturday where it was loading 40 carloads of scrap iron and rails. Part of the scrap iron came from the Mineral Range railroad in the Copper Country, and the remainder from the south yards of the DSS&A here. It is being shipped to Hamilton, Ontario. [IDG-1932-0727] The Cort is equipped with a derrick fitted with an electric magnet hoist for handling scrap iron. [EDP-1932-0728]