Station: Painesdale, MI

Painesdale is located on what was the Copper Range railroad line three miles southwest of Painesdale Junction. This town was settled around 1899 by the Champion Copper Company. [MPN]

Photo Info: Copper Range 200 heads train No. 13 at Painsdale in the 1960's. [Rudy Maki Collection]

Notes

COPR railroad bridge #55 was a reinforced concrete slab bridge which was behind the hoist house in Painsdale. It was built in 1914.

Time Line 

1913. May 22. Mine Rescue Car No. 8 of the bureau of mines which has this week been stationed at Mohawk, where a class of Mohawk, Allouez, Ahmeek and Wolverine miners have been trained in rescue and first aid work, will be moved to Painesdale Saturday. Here a similar program will be carried out, including demonstrations and talks to miners and the training of first aid and rescue classes. [CN-1913-0522]

1913. There was considerable excitement in the South Range district this morning when the strikers paraded in various locations and carried out the same tactics that were employed in Calumet yesterday. At Baltic, Trimountain and Painesdale the strikers divested the deputies of their stars and met with no resistance. One man at Baltic was beaten but not seriously hurt. The Copper Range Consolidated has men patrolling the electric plants at Painesdale. It supplies all of the lighting for the South Range district and it is feared the strikers would shut it down unless the plant was adequately protected. The Copper Range group of mines has appealed to Sheriff Cruse for troops but there being only a small number at Calumet, none could be spared. As of noon, everything was quiet at the South Range district and there was no trouble at Quincy. [CN-1913-0725]

1913. November 22. Boys Are Killed by Earth Slide. Three Painesdale Youths Buried in Railroad Fill. Paul Daume, James Renaldi and John Iskra, three small Painesdale boys, were smothered to death beneath a landslide of earth in a fill on the Copper Range railroad's Painesdale extension about 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon. Harold Daume, brother of Paul, was the only eye witness of the accident and it was only owing to the fact that he was a few feet behind the other boys that he was not also buried by the fall of the sand.

The boys, ages 6-10 were playing in a ravine on the line of the railroad extension. The hollow is known by workmen as "Calebra cut," because of the fact that the earth in this vicinity is treacherous, being subject to slides. Bridge 56 formerly crossed this ravine but this was removed and the work of filling in the ravine started some time ago. There is a natural water flow through this point and in order to care for this, a huge culvert 100 feet long and 6 feet in diameter was constructed. The excavated material was thrown over this until it reached the level of the railroad and then a track was laid over it. The fill is 50 feet wide at the top but still left room for the passage of water at the ends of the culvert. [CN-1913-1124]

1916. The COPR builds a new station at Painesdale. [MCR-1916]