In the northern Lower Peninsula, the first railroads were built to move lumber from station to mill and from mill to cities. Later, their main business became moving passengers from one town to another. Many northern counties quadrupled their population between 1870 and 1880 after the railroad came. As a result, the interior and northern reaches of Michigan were quickly settled.
The Michigan Central reached Mackinaw City in 1881. In 1887, the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island was completed as a joint project of the Michigan Central and the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroads. Millionaire railroad tycoon William Vanderbilt, who by then had gained control of the Michigan Central, attended the grand opening. A new industry — tourism — was born. All along the northern lakes and rivers, from Charlevoix and Petosky to Grayling, Gaylord and Vanderbilt (named after the tycoon), to Cheboygan and Mackinaw, trains brought visitors to resorts and hotels and promoters touted the clean air, beautiful scenery, excellent fishing and freedom from hay fever. Easterners came to see the wild, western reaches of the country, and southern Michigan city dwellers came north to see the wilderness.
Gingerbread railroad stations dotted the landscape along the line. The Grand Rapids & Indiana operated the Northland Limited, with sleeper cars
originating in Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, to join up in Fort Wayne, Ind., for the trip to Traverse City, Petoskey and Mackinaw City. The Michigan Central ran its trains through Bay City, Grayling, Gaylord, Vanderbilt, Indian River and Topinabee, and Cheboygan to Mackinaw City.
In the 1950's, Detroiters who vacationed in the North Country traveled the "Timberliner," a weekend train that left downtown Detroit each Friday afternoon during the summer. Filled with businessmen, it wound its way north to cottages along the Michigan Central route through Grayling to the inland lakes north of Indian River and to Cheboygan or Mackinaw. There was a return trip Sunday evening so men could be back in the office Monday, while mom and the kids stayed Up North and enjoyed the summer. Friday's trips often were spent in the bar car, playing cards and trading fish stories. At the final destination, more than one traveler would be delivered into his family's arms, only slightly worse for wear.
Railway lines reached a mileage high of 9,100 miles in Michigan in 1910. In Detroit, Henry Ford was at work producing a new mode of transportation. Just as the railroads had replaced steamships as the preferred mode of cross-country travel, automobiles were on replacing railroads. The 1920's saw a decrease in ridership and a slowdown in building a new track. However, train travel
increased during the Great Depression of the 1930's. The railroads also began efforts to improve service and to offer more comfortable accommodations. With World War II, and its' gas rationing, there was again a great increase in train travel. Stations were jammed with soldiers and citizens who had no gas for their cars or no cars at all. But the postwar ecomonic boom during the '50s cemented the public's love affair with the automobile. When this was coupled with the vast expansion of air travel, the railroad's fate was sealed.
The many unique railroads gradually consolidated into a few trunk lines. The Michigan Central, which combined with the Lakeshore & Michigan Southern, later merged into the New York Central.
Footsteps rang hollow in the empty railroad stations, once built to reflect pastoral charm and urban grandeur. Some deteriorated and were dismanteled, but many in Northern Michigan were turned into shops, cottages or restaurants.
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