Time Line - 1894

Last Year | Next Year

• Depressed economic times follow the Panic of 1893.  [STOV]

• January 26:  The DL&LM depot at Chadwick Corners burns.  [I&L]

• Spring:  Pullman Palace Car Company strike affects rail service in the Chicago area and other parts of the country.  There wages had been cut 25% without any reduction in the rent paid for company-owned housing.  Members of the American Railway Union struck in sympathy and refused to service trains containing Pullman cars.  Federal troops were ordered to protect the U.S. mail and the strike was eventually broken.  [STOV]

• Spring:  The Lake Shore continues their practice of having green house crews from Hillsdale plant shrubs and flowers at various stations along the line.  [LS]

• April 30:  The depot at White Pigeon is destroyed by fire.  The fire started in the kitchen of the station dining room.  The station was one of the oldest on the Lake Shore.  [LS]

• May:  Pullman Palace Car workers (in Illinois) strike which leads to a general rail strike which paralyzes the nation's transportation system.  Troops are called out to break strike on July 2.   [DWS]

• August:  The Michigan Circuit Court at Port Huron has allowed the Flint & Pere Marquette to abandon its branch road between Yale and Zion, Michigan, about 13 miles.  Citizens who subscribed to install this branch will have the subscription amount returned to them.  This line is a branch of the Port Huron & Northwestern, a narrow gauge road purchased by the F&PM some years ago.  The branch was abandoned soon after the purchase.  [C&OHS-8/94]

• August 8:  Boyne City and Southeastern Railroad opens line from south Arm Pine Lake east to Boyne Falls, via Boyne City, and to railroad junction at Alba.  [MRRC]

• September 8. A new quarry south of Calumet searches for a way to avoid shipping through Torch Lake so as not to be handicapped by the "exorbinant" tolls exacted by the Torch Lake Canal Company, which apparently controls boats travelling to Portage Lake. [LAS-1894-0908]
• September 23:  Alpena and Northern opens line south from La Rocque towards Jackson Lake in Montmorency County.   [KM]

• December 29:  Detroit & Mackinac Railway was charted as a reorganized Detroit, Bay City & Alpena RR.   [MDOT][MDY33]

• December 29:  The Drexel, Morgan and Company syndicate purchases the Alpena and Northern, which had already been completed from Alpena to McKinnon Lake.  [HI]

• DSS&A completes its own line from Iron River to Superior, WI, avoiding the use of the Northern Pacific.  [SSJB]

• The Wisconsin & Michigan Railway begins construction of a line from Peshtigo Harbor, WI on the Menominee River, to Iron Mountain.  The line was completed "after years of struggle".  It included two branch lines crossing the Menominee River into Wisconsin, and provided service over the Milwaukee Road tracks to Marinette, WI/Menominee, MI.  [MSL]

• A line is opened from Petosky to Bay View.  [AAD]

• An interurban electric railroad is opened between East Saginaw and Bay City, running along the west bank of the Saginaw River.  It became the Saginaw Valley Traction Railway.  [NK]

• The Flint & Pere Marquette builds a narrow-gauge branch line from Port Austin to Grindstone City (5 miles).  [AB]

• Toledo & South Haven RR is sold and reorganized as the South Haven & Eastern.   [PMHS]

• Lake Shore & Michigan Southern builds depot at White Pigeon.  Depot continues to exist into 1974.  [IT-12/1974]

• Severe forest fires hit Minnesota and Wisconsin.  The WC (1st) stated that they were "tired of having their bridges burned by forest fires every season".    [SOO-W/1996]

 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