Station: Manistique, MI - Chicago Lumbering Company

The Chicago Lumbering Company was organized in 1863 in Chicago. The company, which purchased land and saw mills in Manistique, build a new mill in 1876 and operated until it was destroyed by fire in 1907.

The owners of this company also owned the Weston Lumber Company which had mills on the west side of the Manistique River. The assets of the Chicago and Weston companies were purchased in 1912 and renamed as Th Consolidated Lumber Company.

Photo Information: A view of the Chicago Lumbering Company plant in 1876.

Notes

Time Line

1891. Reported to be the longest logging railroad in Michigan "and probably the world" is that of the Manistique Lumbering Company. It extends from the village of Manistique, Schoolcraft County, back into the pine forests of Luce County, a distance of fifty miles. Thomas Oliver, superintendent of this road, was a guest at the Griswold House yesterday.

The lumber company, owned by Alger, Smith & Company and Abljah Weston of Painted Post, New York. Its operations the past year were somewhat in excess of those of preceding years. "During last winter we hauled over the railroad to Manistique 33 million feet of logs and banked 28 million feet on the Manistique River. The three mills of the company at Manistique are water power mills and have an annual sawing capacity of 100 million feet.

The population of the town is about 3,000 all supported by the mill and lumbering operations.

Mr. Weston has just completed a blast furnace at Manistique, the advantage being the cheapness of charcoal. There are immense tracks of hardwood in the country around Manistique. The iron ore is brought from the mines over the Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Paul road. [DFP-1891-0606]