Alpena and Northern Railroad

The Alpena and Northern Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated briefly in northern Michigan during the 1890s.

Alpena and Northern Railroad

The company's line from Alpena to Hawks. Not shown: the short-lived extension to Lake Jackson
Overview
Dates of operation	1893 (1893)–1895 (1895)
Successor	Detroit and Mackinac Railway
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Track length	68.7 miles (110.6 km)[1]
Route map mi Dover Gower Otsego County Montmorency County 28.6 Connors Camp No. 2 23.9 Valentine Lake 20.5 McPhee Montmorency County Presque Isle County 13.3 Rainy Lake 4.0 Hurst to Cheboygan 0.0 152.7 LaRocque 149.7 South Rogers City 148.5 Metz 147.0 Nowicki 144.7 to Rogers City 143.5 Posen 140.4 Polaski Presque Isle County Alpena County 135.2 Bolton 133.2 Cathro 124.8 to Bay City Alpena

The company incorporated on July 28, 1893, with the intention of building an 85-mile (137 km) line from Alpena to Mackinaw City, on the south shore of the Straits of Mackinac. On November 18 of that same year the company opened a line from Alpena to LaRocque (now Hawks), for a total length of 35 miles (56 km).[2][3] In Alpena, the railroad used the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena Railroad's station on the north bank of the Thunder Bay River.[4] In 1894, the Alpena and Northern extended its line another 28.6 miles (46.0 km) southwest from LaRocque into Montmorency County.[5]

On April 16, 1895, the A&N was bought by the Detroit and Mackinac Railway and ceased to exist as an independent company.[2] Its original main line between Alpena and LaRocque became part of the D&M's Northern Division, which reached Cheboygan in 1904.[6] The Lake State Railway, successor to the D&M, abandoned the line in the early 2000s.[7] The section southwest of LaRocque, known variously as the Valentine Branch or Jackson Lake Branch, was abandoned south of Hurst in 1903 as the logging industry moved on to other areas.[8] The D&M abandoned the remainder of that branch in 1923.[9]