The Paw Paw Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in

Van Buren County, Michigan Van Buren County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 75,587. The county seat is Paw Paw. The county was founded in 1829 and organized in 1837. History The county was named for Martin Va ...

, between 1857 and 1887. At a length of , it was the shortest operating

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier'') is a person or compan ...

railroad in the state. Later (from 1902 until January 15, 1982), the Ludington & Northern Railway Company, at , stripped the Paw Paw of its title as "shortest Michigan Railroad". The Michigan Central Railroad had originally planned to reach the coast of Lake Michigan at St. Joseph, but these plans changed and the company built to New Buffalo instead. This meant that instead of passing through Paw Paw, the line passed through Lawton, some four miles (6 km) to the south. A group of local businessmen incorporated the Paw Paw Railroad on April 25, 1857, to construct a railway line from Paw Paw to Lawton, where it would join the Michigan Central. An initial attempt, which aimed east of Lawton, resulted in the partial creation of a

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also ref ...

but no track was laid. The so-called "calico grade" was later developed, briefly, by the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago. A second attempt, in 1867, led to the completion in September of that year of a line between Paw Paw and Lawton, which was opened for public use. This constituted the total physical extent of the Paw Paw. The line was originally built as , but in 1875 the Paw Paw's original owners were bought out by the owners of the Toledo and South Haven Railroad (T&SH), a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

line which ran west from Paw Paw to

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

. The two companies remained separate, but in 1877 the Paw Paw's line was converted to gauge to permit joint operations. On March 7, 1887 the Paw Paw merged with the T&SH and ceased to exist as an independent company. Throughout its history, the Paw Paw was specifically exempt from those sections of

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

's railroad law which regulated rates and

fare A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various pa ...

s. In 1898 the South Haven & Eastern (successor to the T&SH) converted the T&SH's lines, including the Paw Paw–Lawton segment, back to . In 1903 it passed along with the SH&E to the

Pere Marquette Railway The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections in ...

, which finally abandoned the line in 1941.Meints (2005).

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paw Paw Railroad Railway companies established in 1857 Railway companies disestablished in 1886 Defunct Michigan railroads Paw Paw Railroad Predecessors of the Pere Marquette Railway Narrow gauge railroads in Michigan 3 ft gauge railways in the United States 1857 establishments in Michigan