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Railroad Fraud
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In 1890, investors from Detroit and Lansing proposed a railroad freight line from the Champion Mine to Huron Bay in Baraga County. Engineer Milo Davis argued that Huron Bay was a perfect untapped location that would serve the Champion Mine area better than Marquette.
A major stumbling block to the Iron Range and Huron Bay Railroad was the steep grade in one section of the line where it reached 4 percent; normal grades, even in mountainous areas only averaged 2.5 percent.
The project, after ten years and nearly two million dollars of expenses, went bankrupt before a train could run on the tracks. Sam Beck, a caretaker of the locomotives at Huron Bay, did ride on the engine for about twenty yards until the rotted rail bed gave way and put the train in the ditch. Milo Davis fled to Mexico to avoid prosecution for fraud.
-Mark Harvey, State Archivist
harveym@michigan.gov
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Main Rock Cut

Workers at the Main Rock Cut, c 1893

One of the Two Baldwin Locomotives That Never Operated on the Railroad

Ore Dock Built for Railroad Deliveries of Iron Ore, c 1895

The "Town" of Huron Bay, MI, c 1895 |
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Archives of Michigan
Michigan Library and Historical Center
702 W. Kalamazoo Street
Lansing, MI 48913
Phone: (517) 373-1408
E-mail: archives@michigan.gov
Updated 05/18/2006
Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
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