Railroad: Alger, Smith and Company

Built → Alger, Smith & Company → Tawas & Bay County Railroad

Built: 1878

Operated for 8 years  

Became: Tawas & Bay County Railroad in 1886.

Reference: [MRRC]

The Alger, Smith and Company, a logging company, built this line west 25 miles from Black River on Lake Huron in Alcona County. The railroad was used predominantely to bring logs to Lake Huron saw mills and to transport goods to logging camps in Alcona County. It was a 3'6" narrow gauge railroad.

In 1886, ownership of the line was conveyed to the Tawas & Bay County Railroad company which was owned at the time by the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railroad (forrunner of the Detroit & Mackinac Ry.)

According to [MRRC] the Alger Smith & Company also owned the Manistique Railway in the upper peninsula for a time.

Notes

The trains are controlled by a train dispatcher located at Mud Lake junction, in the western part of Alcona county, who reaches them by means of a telephone wire that runs along the line. There are no station agents, but at each station there is a little box containing the telephone, to which each conductor carries a key. Often there is not even a station house, in which event the telephone box is on a post by the roadside. [Livingston Co. Daily Press and Argus/5/30/1889]

Time Line

1877. August. The Harrisville Review says: R. A. Alger & Co's log railway will now, and for some time to come, be operated night and day. This is demanded in order to give the raftsmen steady employment. The favorable weather has enabled the raftsmen to put in the lake a huge pile of logs during the past two weeks, and they have fully caught up with their work. [DFP-8/2/1877].  Note: This was likely Alger's logging road before it became a common carrier railroad.

1877. The R.A. Alger & Co. logging railroad is opened in 1877 3-4 miles southwest from Harrisville. [MRRC]

1879. October. The AuSable and Oscoda News says that Gen. Alger's logging railroad will soon be removed from Harrisville to Black River, and many Harrisvillians will go with it. [DFP-10/4/1879]

1889. October. Ten log trains run daily from the Mud Lake country to the Lake Huron shore, one going to Tawas, four to Alpena and five to Black River. Beside these, one freight and one passenger train cover the road every day except Sunday.