The Port Huron and Northwestern Railway (PH&NW) is a defunct railroad which operated in

the Thumb The Thumb is a region and a peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan, so named because the Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten. The Thumb area is generally considered to be in the Central Michigan region, east of the Tri-Cities and north of M ...

area of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

during the 1880s. The company was chartered by a group of

Port Huron, Michigan Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

businessmen on March 23, 1878, and opened its first line, Port Huron to Croswell, on May 12, 1879. The PH&NW's main line ran from Port Huron through Vassar to

East Saginaw East Saginaw is a defunct city in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. History Much of the area that later became East Saginaw was granted by treaty to James Reilly, the Métis son of fur trader Stephen V. R. Reilly and his Chippewa wife ...

; this stretch opened on February 21, 1882. In addition the PH&NW operated three branch lines:

Sand Beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...

, which was a continuation of the original Croswell line and ran up the

Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...

coast; Port Austin, which split from "Sand Beach" at Palms and went through Bad Axe before reaching the northern tip of the Thumb; and Almont, which ran due west from Port Huron.Michigan Railroad Commission (1883), 452. The Sand Beach branch opened completely on September 13, 1880, the Port Austin on December 11, 1882, and the Almont on October 3, 1882. The entire system, including the main line, was

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 ...

. On April 1, 1889, the

Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the U.S. state of Michigan between 1857 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway. Early history The F&PM was c ...

bought the PH&NW, which then ceased to exist as a separate company.Michigan Railroad Commission (1890), 356-357.

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References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Port Huron Northwestern Railway Railway companies established in 1878 Railway companies disestablished in 1889 Defunct Michigan railroads Predecessors of the Pere Marquette Railway Narrow gauge railroads in Michigan 3 ft gauge railways in the United States