Location: Houghton, MI - Copper Range Yard and Locomotive Facilities

The Copper Range railroad's yard and locomotive facilities were located on the south shore of Portage Lake, west of the city of Houghton.

The yard had four to five tracks as well as the main line. On the west side of the yard (near today's M-26 and Houghton Canal Road) the railroad had a 13-stall roundhouse, store house, machine shop car paint and repair shop, and carpenter shop and warehouse. [MIS-2022-W]

The original COPR Houghton Depot was located on the main line along Memorial Street and 2nd avenue. The freight house was opposite the depot, along the Portage Canal waterfront.

The railroad's coal dock was just east of the roundhouse. 

Photo Info: Top, the Copper Range Roundhouse at Houghton, with the coal unloading facility in the background, in a postcard view. 2nd image, a map of the roundhouse in 1911 from Sanborn Maps. [SBM]

Notes

Time Line

1899. The Copper Range railroad builds a 16' x 18' water station at Houghton. Water is pumped to the tank by a steam pump.

1899. Work is commenced on the Houghton round house initially with 10 stalls and a 65 foot turntable. [CRR]

1902. Houghton Yard has been largely increased and a new coal tower has been erected at the coal dock. A large freight warehouse has been erected at the dock at Portage Lake. Five stalls have been added to the roundhouse. A new machine shop and car house were installed at Houghton. [MCR-1903]

1909. November 29. The Copper Range railroad has 22 engines in the Houghton yards every night. At times the number is more, but there are at least this many every night. A hostler is employed to run each of these locomotives in its turn to the coal sheds where it is coaled for the following morning. Much of this coaling will be done at the [Mill Mine] Junction as soon as cold weather sets in. [CN-1909-1129]

1914. September 5. Police Chief Killed in Railroad Yard. Louis Voetsch, 49 years, chief of the Houghton fire and police departments, was killed on the principal street of the city while on his way to his home for supper, by a rock thrown by a blast in an excavation in the Copper Range railroad yards, 1,000 feet away behind the towering electric light plant. He was struck unconscious and never recovered. Chief Voetsch was a native of Houghton, a member of the fire and police departments for 35 years. The blast that killed him was set off by his personal friend, August Giesing, master carpenter of the Copper Range railroad, who is distracted by the accident. Thousands of residents attended his funeral and the city council voted to keep his widow on the payroll at half pay for a full year. [CN-1914-0904]

1914. October 2. The Copper Range railroad and the M. Van Orden company petitioned for the privilege of putting in Gamewell fire alarm boxes to connect with the village (of Houghton) system. [CN-1914-1002]

1940's. The coal handling facilities were removed. [MIS-2022-W]

1979. October 1. The Copper Range roundhouse was torn down. It had been weakened by winter snows and several fires. [CRR]