Time Line - 1860


Last Year | Next Year


  • STATISTIC: Miles of railroads in operations in Michigan this year: 779.  [MRC/72]

  • Summer: Lewis Cass, the "foremost citizen of Detroit for a generation", addresses members of the "three months' regiment" at the D&M depot when the regiment returned to Detroit. [MRC-6/1973]

  • September: Flint & Pere Marquette finishes construction from Saginaw 20 miles south towards Flint. [MRRC]

  • November: Amboy, Lansing and Traverse Bay Railroad opens line from Owosso to Laingsburg. [MRRC]

  • December: The Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad is the first main-line railroad to penetrate Michigan's white pine forests. They began hauling logs from the Crockery Creek valley to Hunter Savidge's sawmill in Mill Point adjacent to Spring Lake. [MH-11/1993]

  • December 31: Michigan Railroad Mileage Totaled 700 miles. [MDOT/AAD]


  • Michigan Central Railroad builds a 3-story brick depot in Ypsilanti - [MRC-0988]

  • Passengers could travel from Boston to St. Louis in about 48 hours. [STOV]

  • Passenger train conductors and brakemen were furnished uniforms by the railroad. During the Civil War, these were stovepipe hats but these soon gave way to caps. [AAD]

  • Nationally, there are 30,000 miles of railroad track. [STOV]

  • George Pullman builds a plant in Detroit to manufacture his Palace and Sleeping Cars. Later, Pullman moved the entire operation to Chicago. [AAD]

  • Detroit's population: 45,619 [D18/BOM] 


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

 

Bibliography

The following sources are utilized in this website. [SOURCE-YEAR-MMDD-PG]:

  • [AAB| = All Aboard!, by Willis Dunbar, Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids ©1969.
  • [AAN] = Alpena Argus newspaper.
  • [AARQJ] = American Association of Railroads Quiz Jr. pamphlet. © 1956
  • [AATHA] = Ann Arbor Railroad Technical and Historical Association newsletter "The Double A"
  • [AB] = Information provided at Michigan History Conference from Andrew Bailey, Port Huron, MI

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