Station: Hancock, MI

Hancock was settled about 1846 across Portage Lake from Houghton. The town was platted by the Quincy Mining Company. Hancock became a village in 1875 and a city in 1903. [MPN]

Photo Info: Top, this is one of the earlier railroad bridges between Houghton and Hancock from the Hancock side, a postcard view.

Notes

Time Line

1889. The Mineral Range depot at Hancock was originally built on the lakeshore, between the engine house and the docks and used by both the MR and the H&C. [SOO-2022-Q1]

1898. The Mineral Range depot is moved to the top of the hill after the MR was converted to standard gauge. [SOO-2022-Q1]

1900. The Houghton County Traction Company Car Barn was built in 1900 at Ash Street and Park Street. This large wood-framed car barn consisted of three distinct but connected segments: the easternmost segment, fronting on Ethel Avenue is single-story with gabled room 40' by 75'. A middle segment, two stories high, rested on a stone foundation 75' by 120' long. The westernmost section was also two-story, 50' by 100' long. The building continues to exist in 2016. [UPM]

1910. William Anderson, 23, was fatally injured this morning while engaged in coaling an engine in the Mineral Range yards at the foot of Ravine street in Hancock. He was caught between the engine tender and the corner of the coal sheds and as the locomotive backed up the life of Anderson was crushed out. He was employed as a "hostler" in the railroad yards and engine No. 604 had just been turned over to him to be coaled up. [CN-1910-0505]

1916. December 16. A new Hancock depot was opened. It was built of Montezuma old rose colonial faced brick and was 30' x 76' in size, with separate ladies' and men's waiting rooms, red quarry tile floors, lavatories and sanitary drinking fountains, baggage and express rooms with reinforced concrete floors. [SOO-2022-Q1]

1918. The DSS&A had an operator at Hancock Yard during the day shift. [TRT]

1920. The DSS&A Hancock station and freight house were built on Depot Street in about 1920. [UPM]

1968. June. A fire of undetermined origin broke out shortly before midnight in an abandoned freight depot owned by the Soo Line railroad in Hancock. The fire was brought under control by the Hancock and Houghton fire departments. [IDG-1968-0628]