Postcard: The High Bridge, over the Pere Marquette River, northern Michigan.
As we look to reestablish passenger rail service to Traverse City, examining the present and past of the railroad here provides helpful and fascinating perspectives into the possibilities for the future. While the original passenger service—in existence since 1872—ended in 1966, freight trains still carry various products to and from customers around the Greater Traverse area today under the operation of the Great Lakes Central Railroad.
Let’s take a look back at the 1800s, when trains first rolled into downtown. Traverse City, then little more than a settlement, had only been officially named with the opening of a post office in 1852. Across the state, massive infrastructure projects were being conceived and constructed; one of which was the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. Originally formed in 1854, the company would complete a rail line from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Little Traverse Bay, near Petoskey—via Grand Rapids—by 1870.
Looking west down Front Street, Traverse City, in an era when rail ruled.
A group of enterprising businessmen in Traverse City led by Perry Hannah, co-owner of the largest company and logging operation in the area, felt there would be major benefits to connecting the city to this main line. At this point in time, the vast majority of outbound freight, inbound goods, and bidirectional individuals traveled by boat to and/or from Traverse City and Northern Michigan. The most reliably scheduled form of transport was a steamboat operated by Perry Hannah’s company, Hannah, Lay, and Co., which made regular trips to Chicago.
Hannah, Lay & Co.’s main grist mill, a key part of Traverse City’s early industrial makeup that kept rails busy.
In 1871, Hannah led the group in forming the Traverse City Railroad Company and raising the necessary funds to begin constructing their vision. The line was completed the next year, stretching 26 miles from the heart of the developing business district to the existing Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad line. Passenger and freight service would begin on November 15th, 1872, and Traverse City was suddenly connected with the rest of the state—and by extension, country—like it never had been before. It was easier than ever to set up a business, given the quicker, more reliable transportation the railroad offered, and a good number of people began to make the move north. Just nine years after the establishment of rail service in Traverse City, in 1881, it had grown enough in population and significance to officially be incorporated into a village.
The thickest black lines represent early railroads in Grand Traverse County; to the right is the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad main line, and branching off to the left is the Traverse City Railroad.
The sentiment of those enterprising businessmen had proven correct, and bringing the railroad to Traverse City was a major success. Initially, the vast majority of rail revenues came from freight, more specifically, shipping lumber from the Greater Traverse area down to the rest of the state. Hannah, Lay, and Co., were able to ship more lumber than they ever had before, and economic activity in the city boomed. The convenience of the railroad further allowed northern Michigan lumber to play a significant role in the reconstruction of Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871. The growth in revenues, massively aided by the presence of the railroad, allowed the company to diversify into other milling industries as well as the department store business.
The Hannah, Lay & Co. building was an icon of early Traverse City and a development that made sense as population boomed, tourism increased and timber production peaked.
The railroad’s revenue mix, however, would begin to shift as Traverse City became known as an accessible and attractive destination, just a simple train ride away. Tourism would only increase as Traverse City became better connected to the state as other railroads connected to the Grand Rapids & Indiana mainline and made travel to and from Detroit and Lansing even more convenient. Beyond tourism, people kept liking what they were seeing when they got off the train in Traverse City and choosing to make it their new home, continuing the population expansion.
From 1880 to 1900, a number of new railroads were constructed from Traverse City into the surrounding areas. These were first built to serve logging operations, but sustained demand led to the construction of several tourist-focused lines that directly served resorts. Railway revenues were immense during this period, driven not just by the dramatic growth in tourism but also the sustained strength of the lumber industry; at peak in 1887, there were 89 logging railroads in Michigan—more than anywhere else in the country—largely concentrated around Traverse. Beyond these shorter spurlike railroads, Traverse would also become more connected with the other developing settlements in the area. In 1874, the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad completed an extension into Petoskey’s downtown, and in 1882, it would reach its maximal northern terminus, Mackinaw City.
Small narrow-gage railroads played a key role in expanding logging into forests that lacked big rivers to move timber.
As connections to other areas of Northern Michigan became more vital to attracting passengers, the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, Michigan Central Railroad, and Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad formed a joint venture, the Mackinac Transportation Company in 1881 to operate railcar ferries across the Strait of Mackinac, directly connecting the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, and by extension, expanding the rail network. This partnership flourished, and The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad & Michigan Central Railroad would officially connect their networks in 1884 by installing a mechanical interlocking plant—a system of switches, signals, locks and derailers that help trains switch tracks smoothly—between their tracks in Wasepi (now Nottawa). This would be Michigan’s first system of this sort. In 1886, as they continued their drive to increase tourism in the north, The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad & Michigan Central Railroad would form another joint venture, this time with the Detroit & Cleveland Steamship Navigation Company and known as the Mackinac Island Hotel Company, to construct and operate the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Tourists who made the journey north by train would switch to the Detroit & Cleveland steamships to complete their journey to the hotel.
Ferries were designed to take in railcars and steam them to distant ports. The last railcar ferry port near Traverse City—in Frankfort—closed in 1982.
The early 1890’s would also see two new rail networks constructing their own tracks into Traverse City that branched into the rest of the state; the Manistee & North Eastern Railroad and the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad. New networks entering the city were significant not only in terms of new destinations and services offered, but in terms of local impact. Each company employed scores of community members and built grand stations in prime areas of the downtown. Unfortunately, much of this infrastructure is gone today. However, some key pieces do still exist and have been repurposed, such as the Filling Station Microbrewery, which takes up the former Chicago & West Michigan depot, and The Parlor Bar which occupies a former Chicago & West Michigan freight station.
Traverse City rail depot, on the north shore of Boardman Lake, now home to The Filling Station Microbrewery.
The former rail depot on Lake Street, now home to a mix of businesses, including The Parlor and Rare Bird Brewpub.
The railroads operating into Traverse City, and across the state and nation more widely, would achieve a golden age of profits and reliability in the first two decades of the 20th century. The number of station buildings in Michigan would peak at 1,776 in 1905; five years later in 1910, the total length of rail line statewide would also peak at 9,021 miles. While profits were significant, there was still a significant amount of risk involved in each new project and funding often proved scarce. The decline of lumber production in the region contributed significantly to the scarcity of available capital, as lumber freight traffic still accounted for a major portion of railroad revenues. To make up for lower freight volumes, the railroads operating into Traverse City and Northern Michigan would continue investing in tourism development and marketing to draw in more passengers.
The revenues rail generated between 1900 and the late 1920s fueled operational standardization, passenger experience development and industry consolidation. Passenger numbers peaked on the Manistee & North Eastern, and the Grand Rapids & Indiana was running six round trip trains from Grand Rapids to Traverse City a day. Acquisitions would see the rail companies lose their Michigan headquarters. The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad—which had bought the Traverse City Railroad in 1917—was purchased by the much larger Pennsylvania Railroad a year later. Meanwhile, the successor to the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad—the Pere Marquette Railway—was absorbed by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1924. After a leasing agreement brought it under the control of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1930, The Manistee & North Eastern Railroad would continue operating independently as a subsidiary of the C&O’s Pere Marquette division until 1955, when it too was subsumed into the larger company.
The Great Depression, combined with the rapidly increasing adoption of the automobile took a significant toll on the railroads operating into Traverse City. However, operations were largely maintained throughout World War II and into the 1950s, when a slow, yet steady decline began. Roads to and throughout Northern Michigan had been steadily improving, and the establishment of the Interstate Highway System cut travel times and improved road quality greatly. The new possibility of the road trip was capturing the imaginations of travelers and with them, their dollars. As car infrastructure and ownership only increased, railroads struggled to find investment and good lending terms. First passenger service to Traverse City was reduced, before being cut entirely in 1966. Shortly after, the tracks would come into the ownership of the State of Michigan, as the passenger-dependent railroad companies collapsed. Despite the establishment of Amtrak five years later, passenger service would not return, leaving Traverse City and Northern Michigan as a whole disconnected from the national passenger rail network to this day.
Thanks in part to massive federal investment into building freeways, railroads had a difficult time competing with trucking companies and over the second half of the 20th century, rail suffered a severe decline. Passenger service to Traverse City ended in 1966, and many tracks fell into disrepair or were removed.
Most of the original tracks in and around Traverse City have fallen into disuse and been developed, turned to trails, or left as memorabilia of the time multiple rail lines ran into downtown. However, that 26 mile spur the Traverse City Railroad built into downtown back in 1872 continued being operated for freight service, now connected to the state via remnants of the Grand Rapids & Indiana line and a line constructed by the Ann Arbor Railroad that runs from the namesake city to Cadillac.
The Great Lakes Railroad Company still provides freight transportation service to Traverse City. Here, one of the company’s trains parks at the Traverse City rail depot near Woodmere Ave.
The idea of reestablishing passenger rail service to Traverse City came about as MDOT conducted public outreach for its 2011 State Rail Plan. MDOT received hundreds of comments from around the state that emphasized the need for improving and expanding our passenger rail network, and the most popular destination for passenger rail in these comments was Traverse City. So, in the published State Rail Plan, MDOT took note, detailed the benefits and necessity of such a route, and stated the need for a feasibility study for it.
Over the past decade, primarily to increase quality for freight services, MDOT has completed a program of much needed improvements to the tracks. While they were still useful for freight, they were long past their intended replacement dates, which made them unsuitable for passenger service. With MDOT’s improvements, the line will not only be safer and more reliable for freight; it should be capable of handling regular passenger rail traffic.
As MDOT uncovered the state’s latent desire for the reestablishment of passenger rail to Traverse City, the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities and its Transportation and Community Design program director Jim Bruckbauer had conducted some community research of its own and begun an effort to make reestablishment reality. In 2018, Groundwork commissioned an initial study (you can take a look here) that probed and displayed the feasibility of passenger rail in Traverse and Northern Michigan more widely. Then in 2022, the Cadillac/Wexford County Transit Authority and Groundwork received a grant from the US Department of Transportation to complete the final necessary planning study. This study will focus on the specifics of developing and operating the proposed passenger service.
Trains for a modern passenger service to Traverse City and a new station could look similar to the ones shown here.
The dream of bringing passenger rail back to Northern Michigan is closer to reality than ever. Hopefully, the next chapter in this story will be about the reestablishment of passenger rail in Traverse City, and the economic, environmental and societal benefits it’ll have brought back to this region and mid-Michigan towns all along the line.
This led the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities and its Transportation and Community Design program director Jim Bruckbauer to begin working on making passenger rail in Traverse City a reality again. Groundwork commissioned an initial study in 2018 that displayed the possibility and feasibility of passenger rail in Traverse and Northern Michigan. Then in 2022, Groundwork and the Cadillac/Wexford Transit Authority received a grant from the US Department of Transportation to complete the final necessary planning study. The dream of bringing passenger rail back to Northern Michigan is closer to reality than ever. Hopefully, the next chapter in this story will be about the reestablishment of passenger rail in Traverse City, and the economic, environmental and societal benefits it’ll have brought back to this region and mid-Michigan towns all along the line.
Michael Goldman Brown, Jr., Groundwork Transportation Specialist.
michael.goldmanbrown@groundworkcenter.org
