First Steam Railroad in Upper Peninsula

First Steam Railroad in Upper Peninsula is a Michigan historical marker in Marquette, Marquette County, dedicated 1977.

Marquette County · dedicated 1977 · 200 N. Lakeshore Blvd, Marquette

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On this site in 1852, the Green Bay and Lake Superior Rail-Road began the survey which led to the construction of the first steam railroad in the Upper Peninsula. The railroad ran from Marquette to the Jackson and Cleveland iron mines fourteen miles away. In 1855 the building of the railroad along the previously surveyed route was begun by the Iron Mountain Railroad Company. By 1857 it was hauling ore from the mines to Marquette. It later became part of the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railroad, which has operated since 1961 as the Soo Line. This railroad, and others like it, carried millions of tons of ore, the basic raw material for the rapidly developing steel industry in the United States.

TodayHistorical map

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Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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More markers nearby

Jacques Marquetteunder 1 mi
Marquette County Courthouseunder 1 mi
Bishop Baraga Houseunder 1 mi
George Shiras III / George Shiras IIIunder 1 mi

On the National Register nearby

Savings Bank Building290 ft

Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.