Time Line - 1884

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• January 1: Grand Trunk (Michigan Air Line Ry.) opens line from Ridgeway to Jackson. [MRRC]

• January: Menominee Branch Railroad completes line from Menominee to Green Bay. [MRRC]

• Mid: Saginaw & Mt. Pleasant RR (F&PM) converted to standard gauge. [PMHS]

• Mid: Saginaw, Tuscola & Huron RR builds a 9 miles to Bay Port. [PMHS]

• June 9: Marquette and Western completes line from Marquette to Ishpeming.  (Later leased to DSS&A). [MRRC]

• June 27: The Ann Arbor Railroad is completed as far north as St. Louis. [AAD]

• July 19: Paris & Pere Marquette River Railroad opens 3'1" line from Upper Paris west 16 miles. Abandoned in 1889. [MRRC]

• August: Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan opens like from Owosso to St. Louis. [MRRC]

• November: Paddlewheel car ferry "Lansdowne" began more than 90 years of crossings between Detroit and Windsor, the longest service of any railroad car ferry in the world. [MDOT]

• November: Michigan's first mechanical interlocking plant was installed at Wasepi at the crossing of Grand Rapids & Indiana and Michigan Central Railroads. [MDOT]

• Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Ry. opens line from Watersmeet to Ironwood. [MRRC]

• Potts Salt and Lumber Co. opens line from McKinley southwesterly 14 miles. [MRRC]

• First railroad service to Ironwood started by Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Ry. Co. [MDOT]

• Cadillac & Northeastern opens 3' private logging railroad from 10 miles in length, from Cadillac to NW corner of Lake Missaukee. [MRRC]

• Gogebic Range is opened for iron mining, the last range developed in Michigan.  It became a major iron producer on both the Michigan and Wisconsin sides of the river. [MSL]

• Grand Trunk builds depot at Gaines and Morrice. Depots continues to exist as of 1974. [IT-12/1974]

• Saginaw, Tuscola and Huron Railroad builds a new board and batten depot in Elkton in 1884. The depot continues to exist in 1999, though it has been moved to a site downtown. [MRP-I]

Time line Key:

• Railroad event in Michigan
• Event relating to mining
• Event related to car ferries
• Event outside of Michigan
• Improvement in Technology
• Railroad built or extended
• Railroad abandoned and/or removed
• Economic panic or depression