Editors note: The Daily Mining Gazette, in cooperation with other Upper Peninsula newspapers is running companion pieces to our America 250 stories with a focus on the U.P.’s role in building America. Today’s story comes from the Iron Mountain Daily News.

Before the advent of the railroad, wagons provided the most common mode of land transportation, and were capable of covering little more than 30 miles a day. Thus, most Americans lived and died close to their birthplace, seldom traveling more than 50 miles from home.

With the departure of the nation’s first passenger train from Charleston, South Carolina, on Christmas Day 1830, the railroad rapidly began to transform America’s lifestyle. By 1850, powerful engines were moving trains loaded with people and goods along at 40 to 50 miles per hour, making trips of 300 miles in a single day.

After the Civil War, passenger traffic continued to expand as tracks engulfed the continent like a huge spider web. Communities competed to attract rail companies as the construction fever increased. By 1900, the Official Guide of the Railways contained an index of about 55,000 stations across the United States, served by more than 1,200 railroads. After World War I, the number of passenger trains reached its peak when 20,000 scheduled trains operated daily.

Pullman sleepers were the first cars to be electrically lighted and steam heated. Regular overnight trains to and from such cities as Minneapolis and Chicago offered standard Pullman service, with plush green upholstered seats by day and 12-section upper and lower berths by night. Dining cars, the pride of most railroads, were often the subject of competitive advertising. Snow-white linen, sparkling table service and excellent cuisine produced meals that were equal to those of the finest big-city restaurants.

Train travel in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was at its peak shortly after the turn of the century, when 14 common carrier railroads offering scheduled freight and passenger service were in operation. In a 24-hour period no less than 178 passenger trains huffed and puffed across the peninsula, and this unbelievable figure doesn’t include the many trains on lumber company railroads that served logging camps. Most of these logging trains also carried passengers on a casual basis.

Built in 1857 to replace the mule-pulled cart system used on strap railways, the Iron Mountain Railroad, the first railroad in the Upper Peninsula, was organized to move iron ore from the Negaunee-area iron mines to the port of Marquette. Two years later it became known as the Bay de Noquet & Marquette Railroad and, after a series of ownership and name changes, eventually became a segment of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railway.

The first railroad to reach the Menominee Iron Range was a branch line of the Chicago & North-Western Railway Company. This company was formed in June 1859, when several lines of railroad that had been built at various times in Wisconsin and Illinois between 1845 and 1855 were purchased and consolidated. Authorized by Congress to build a line from Chicago via Janesville, Wisconsin, to the north line of Wisconsin at the Menominee River, the Chicago & North-Western began at once to build this extension, which was completed to Fort Howard (Green Bay), Wisconsin, in 1862.

A locomotive called the Appleton — early locomotives were named, not numbered — was shipped from Green Bay by scow and unloaded on Christmas day of that same year. With Engineer C.H. Weideman at the throttle, the Appleton powered the first train north shortly thereafter. In October 1864, the 63-mile Peninsula Railroad was taken over by the Chicago & North-Western Railway Company to become its Peninsula Division. In the meantime, work had started on the first ore dock in Escanaba in 1863 and 1864. By 1865, the dock was completed and the railroad was in operation.

The lumber business at the mouth of the Menominee River and south along the west shore of Green Bay had grown to immense proportions during the years prior to 1871. However, the various towns between Green Bay and Menominee had no railroad facilities, being served by boat during the season of navigation and by stage during the winter.

The Chicago & North-Western Railway Company finally decided to extend their line through Marinette/Menominee to Escanaba, thus making a rail connection with its Peninsula Division.

During that same year the Chicago & North-Western Railway Company had a surveying party in the field locating the line from Menominee to Escanaba. Two or three preliminary lines were run before the final line was located, following close along the shore of Green Bay the whole distance between the two places. However, when the company became aware of the discovery of large quantities of iron ore to the north on what was to become the Menominee Iron Range, Congress was successfully petitioned to change the line.

Work began on the second section of the extension — from Menominee to Escanaba — in the spring of 1872. By the middle of November the track was laid from Escanaba to a point about 2 miles west of a station called Indian Town in Menominee County, leaving a gap of about 4 miles of heavy work in a very unfinished condition. Due to the onset of winter, only enough work was done on this unfinished portion to lay the track and connect with track already laid and in use from Menominee. By the middle of December the track from Menominee was connected with the track from Escanaba at a station called Spalding, and a few days later the first passenger train ran from Escanaba to Menominee, and the whole road from Fort Howard to Escanaba was opened for business. Finally the Peninsula Division was joined to the great system to which it belonged.

With the line between Menominee and Escanaba completed, the Chicago & North-Western Railway Company could now turn its attention to the branch line that would leave Powers from the newly discovered iron mines then located in Menominee County.

This article is part of William J. Cummings’ book “All Aboard! Along the Tracks in Dickinson County, Michigan.” Cummings is a local historian who lives in Dickinson County.