The Chicago and West Michigan Railway (C&WM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the

state 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 ...

between 1881 and 1899.Galbraith's railway mail service maps, Michigan.
Publ. Chicago 1897, c1898. Library of Congress. Accessed April 2020. It was one of the three companies which merged to become 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 ...

. The C&WM was formed on October 1, 1881, through the consolidation of the

Chicago and West Michigan Railroad (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the

Grand Rapids, Newaygo and Lake Shore Railroad The Grand Rapids, Newaygo and Lake Shore Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan between 1872 and 1881. The GRN&LS was chartered on September 11, 1869, under the leadership of David P. Clay. The company operated a l ...

, the Grand Haven Railroad and the Indiana and Michigan Railroad.

Network

At its creation in 1881, the C&WM controlled the following lines, comprising : The C&WM's first new line was a extension south from New Buffalo to La Crosse, Indiana, which opened in November 1882. In 1884 the C&WM bought the White River Railroad, which it had previously leased, which controlled a line from White Cloud to Baldwin (where it joined the Flint & Pere Marquette). In 1890 the C&WM extended the line north from Baldwin another to

Traverse City Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was ...

. On February 28, 1891, the C&WM created the Chicago and North Michigan to extend the line an additional to Bay View, a task it completed on July 17, 1892; the company also built a branch line from Williamsburg to Elk Rapids. In 1897 the C&WM entered into an arrangement with

William Alden Smith William Alden Smith (May 12, 1859 – October 11, 1932) was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan. After the 1912 sinking of the ''Titanic'', Smith chaired the Senate hearings into the disaster. The audience ...

to construct a railway line southeast from

Rapid City Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western So ...

through Kalkaska to northern

Missaukee County Missaukee County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 15,052. The county seat is Lake City. Missaukee County is part of the Cadillac, MI Micropolitan Statistical Area. The county i ...

. Alden's company, the Grand Rapids, Kalkaska and Southeastern Railroad, completed the road in 1898 and was leased by the C&WM starting the next year. The C&WM's successor, the Pere Marquette, formally consolidated the GRK&S in 1903. In 1899 the C&WM consolidated with the Flint and Pere Marquette Railway and the

Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad The Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad (DL&N) is a defunct railroad which was formed on December 27, 1876 as a reorganization of the foreclosed Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Rail Road. The segment of its main line from Detroit to Lansing ...

to form the

. However, the conveyance of the Indiana property was later declared invalid, and the C&WM continued to exist as a

non-operating subsidiary In the United States, a paper railroad is a company in the railroad business that exists "on paper only": as a legal entity which does not own any track, locomotives, or rolling stock. In the early days of railroad construction, paper railroads h ...

in that state until March 12, 1917, at the same time as the

took over the Pere Marquette Railroad. Today, only the lines from New Buffalo to Holland, Holland to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

, Grand Rapids to Ludington, Walhalla to Manistee, and Grawn to Williamsburg remain in use, with the rest of the track torn out, most of it being dismantled between 1982 and 1983 when the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway abandoned a lot of its former C&WM trackage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago West Michigan Railway Railway companies established in 1881 Railway companies disestablished in 1917 Defunct Michigan railroads Defunct Indiana railroads West Michigan Predecessors of the Pere Marquette Railway 1881 establishments in Michigan 1899 mergers and acquisitions 1917 disestablishments in Indiana