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]