Time Line - 1910

Last Year | Next Year

• March 8: "Ann Arbor Car ferry No. 1" burns at Manitowoc, WI. [MDOT]

• March 20: The Copper Range Railroad Co. inaugurates its new sleeper and dining car service, "The Copper Range Limited".  The train pulled into Calumet at 1:00 p.m. and departed southbound at 3:30 o'clock. [CCEN]

• April: The Ann Arbor RR obtains operating control of the Manistique & Lake Superior RR. [MDOT]

• May 16: Drawn by Engine No. 500, one of the best on the road, with engineer Fred Reinhardt at the throttle, the new Northwestern passenger train arrives in Calumet at 10:00 o'clock this morning, almost on schedule time. Dan Vaughan of Marquette was the conductor. The train is one of the finest that has ever pulled into the city. [CCEN]

• July: A new Union Station in Gary, Indiana is opened by the Lake Shore and the Baltimore & Ohio. [LS]

• July: Five hundred state troops are sent to Durand to assure order during a railroad strike.  [MDOT]

• July 22: The Copper Range railroad has installed electric fans and screen doors on their new Limited train and the train is now practically free from dust, according to the local newspaper.  "It is the aim of the management to make this run as free from dust as possible, and to this end they have graed the railroad with stamp-sand. [CCEN]

• July 26: The Detroit River Runnel Company completes and opens its tunnel between Detroit and Windsor.  The tunnel uses electric locomotives. [MDOT]

• July 27: First passenger train passes through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. [MT]

• August 1: Chicago, Kalamazoo & Saginaw - CK&S - line from Kalamazoo to Pavilion was leased to the GTW. [IT-12/79/AAD]

• August 8: Grand Trunk Western completes Kalamazoo Terminal line. [IT-12/79]

• August 25: Teddy Roosevelt speaks to a crowd from the back of his private, open vestibule car at the Main Street crossing,  Elkhart, Indiana. [LS]

• August: The Lake Shore opens a new station at LaPorte, Indiana to replace the station which had burned in 1907. [LS]

• September 9: Car ferry "Pere Marquette No. 18" sank off Sheboygan, WI with loss of approximately 30 persons. [MDOT]

• September 26: The Manistique & Lake Superior is called the "Haywire" by the Mining Journal, the first time that term is used in print. [AATHA-Sp/1989]

• September 26: The management of the Houghton County Traction Co. has decided to close Electric Park for the season of 1910. The season has been a very busy one, enormous crowds being entertained without accident or disorder. There were nine open air band concerts, forty-one free dances, and fifteen private parties beside many public and private picnics.  Attendance during the season was 46,297 adults and 4,000 children. [CCEN]

• September, 10: The Copper Range railroad company will receive a total of 150,000 tons of coal this season, the usual amount, a large portion of which will be shipped to the mines, mills and smelters of the Copper Range consolidated. [CN-1910-0912]

• October 10: Detroit, Bay City & Western Railroad opens line from Bay City to Caro. [MRRC]

• October 13: Telephones were put into service on the Western Division of the LS&MS (Elkhart west) for the purpose od train dispatching. They replaced the telegraph, which had been used since the Civil War. [LS]

• October 15: First passenger trains through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Built by the Detroit River Tunnel Company, controlled by the Michigan Central. [DWS/MRRC]

• November 26: Car ferry "Ann Arbor No. 5" launched, the first Great Lakes ferry with a seagate to keep out high waves. [MDOT]

• December 31: Michigan Railroad Mileage Totaled 9,021 miles. [MDOT]

  ---

• The Manistee & Northeastern RR completed its line to Grayling from Kaleva, 79 miles. [MDOT/AAD]

• The Saginaw-Bay City Railroad, an electric interurban line originally names the Saginaw Valley Traction Railway, opened a line from Bay City to Wenona Beach, an amusement park on Saginaw Bay north of Bay City. This line ceased operation in 1921. [NK]

• Kalamazoo Junction Station closed.  [IT-12/79]

• The Copper Range railroad finishes three steel bridges near Lake Linden in Houghton County. The Douglass-Houghton bridge, the largest on the COPR, was completed in September. A considerable engineering feat, 345 feet long from bank to bank with rails 110 feet from the lowest point in the wall. The Hungarian Creek bridge near Point Mills is 65 feet high and forty feet long. A trestle near the Lake Linden depot crosses the Houghton County Traction track and is 114 feet long and 40 feet high. All bridges are constructed of steel and concrete and cost over $30,000 each. [CN-1910-0913]

• Fire destroys the 2nd and 3rd story of the MCRR Ypsilanti Depot.  It is rebuilt as a one-story building with a tower. [MRC-09/88]

• The Detroit & Mackinac Ry. reports that the lumber market is poor and much lumber is piled along their road, awaiting better prices before shipping. The report also notes that cement is bringing good prices and the active plants at Alpena and North Bay City are busy. There is "every prospect" that the immense limestone deposits at Crawford's Quarry near Rogers City will be developed in the near future. "They are stated to be the largest and purest in the world". [DMAR-1910]

• JD tower is built in LaPorte at the crossing of the Pere Marquette and Lake Shore & Michigan Southern. The tower was built after the Lake Shore straightened out a curve in their main track. The tower initials, "JD" were named after the tower's first trick operator J. C. Dawson. [LS]

• Grand Trunk builds new depot at Columbus.  Depot continues to exist as of 1974. [IT-12/1974]

• CK&S leases most of it's line south of Kalamazoo (from Pavilion to Pavilion Jct.) to the Grand Trunk Western. [NYC-2/1989]

• Outer belt line of railroads under construction in Detroit. [DWS]

• Harbor Springs Railway abandons 2' 6" line between Harbor Springs and Cross Village. [MRRC]

• Lewiston and Southeastern Railroad abandons 3' gauge line, 15 miles from Lewiston southeast in Oscoda County. [MRRC]

• The Michigan Central removes a logging branch line north of Bentley (in Gladwin County). [GM]

• Congress passes the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 which further increased the power of the ICC. It permitted the ICC to suspend new rates for as long as 10 months and placed the burden of proof of reasonableness of rates upon the railroad instead of the shipper. [STOV]

• The population of Houghton County reaches 90,000. [MOD-6/1985]

• Horses were used as late as 1910 by the Michigan Central Railroad on one of its logging branch lines in the northern lower peninsula (its Mackinac Division). [MH-11/1993]

• Dodge Main, a large automobile plant, is built in Hamtramck between 1910 and 1914.  It is torn down in 1980. [BOM]

• COPR lays 90 lb. rail near Painesdale, due to the heavy rock being transported. [CRH]

• A reserve coal trestle was erected by the Copper Range Railroad at Mill-Mine Jct. which can be used to supply coal to the mines, mills or the railroad. It holds 16,000 tons of coal. [CRH]

• The Copper Range receives trackage rights on the Milwaukee Road between McKeever and Ontonagon and operates a daily passenger train between Calumet and Ontonagon. They also obtain rights on the Milwaukee Road between McKeever and Channing. On this line, they operate through freight service to Channing and the Milwaukee Road operates a through electric-lighted passenger train between Chicago, Milwaukee and points in the Copper Country. [CRH]

• SNAPSHOT: The Copper Range Railroad has 22 engines in service. Rolling stock is completely equipped with air brakes. [CRH]

• COPR purchases a modern, electric-lighted café observation car, called the Miscowaubik, meaning “red metal”. [CRH]

 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