Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway
Encyclopedia
The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (DSS&A) was an American
railroad serving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
and the Lake Superior
shoreline of Wisconsin
. It provided service from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
, and St. Ignace, Michigan
, westward through Marquette, Michigan
to Superior, Wisconsin
, and Duluth, Minnesota
. A branchline stretched northward from Nestoria, Michigan up to the Keweenaw Peninsula
and terminating at Houghton, Michigan
, with two branches extending further to Calumet, Michigan
and Lake Linden, Michigan
.
The first predecessor of the DSS&A began operations in 1855. The railroad fell under the control of the Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR) in 1888, and was operated in 1888-1960 as an independently-nameplated subsidiary of the CPR. In 1949, a reorganization of the DSS&A took place, creating new heralds and designating the company a railroad (RR) instead of a railway (RY). In 1961, the DSS&A RR was folded into the CPR-controlled Soo Line Railroad
. Since 2001, the remaining operating trackage of the former DSS&A has been operated by the Canadian National Railway
(CN). The original DSS&A trackage still operated is now limited to the areas between Trout Lake and Munising Jct., Ishpeming and Baraga, and White Pine and Marengo Jct.
iron ore mines in the Upper Peninsula hills above Marquette encouraged the development of numerous railroad plans for spur lines and connecting routes between mines, local boom towns, and the shores of the Great Lakes. While most of the Upper Peninsula's iron ore and Keweenaw copper was shipped to the rest of the United States by lake boat, the inability of water-based shippers to offer service to northern Michigan in winter encouraged railroad promoters to launch numerous plans for lines in the Upper Peninsula.
By the 1870s, a maze of corporate charters and tiny stub lines had been created or built in the central Upper Peninsula, primarily to carry iron or copper ore from the mines down to smelters and docks on the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan
. In 1879-81, venture capitalists led the construction of the Detroit, Mackinac & Marquette (DM&M), a standard-gauge main line from St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinac
, to Marquette on Lake Superior. The roadbed included a surveyor-straight 25 miles (40.2 km) east-west section, the ancestor of today's “Seney stretch”
. Although the state of Michigan granted the DM&M more than 1.3 million acre
s (5,300 km²) of state land, almost 9000 acres-per-mile (23 km²/km) as a construction subsidy, by 1886 the new DM&M went into receivership.
The DM&M was reorganized by venture capitalist James McMillan of Detroit
, who led the rapid consolidation of the DM&M and many of the UP's smaller railroads during the early 1880s. The new Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic went into operation as a merger of these lines in December 1886.
During the 1890s, the timber
industry reached the peak of its operations on the Lake Superior shoreline properties adjacent to the DSS&A's new main line, with irreplaceable old-growth white pines falling to the lumbermen's saws and axes. After white pines were exhausted, local cutters began to turn to high-quality hardwoods such as sugar maple, and then to pulpwoods such as paper birch and aspen.
At the height of the railroad's operations in 1911, the DSS&A operated 623 miles (1,002.6 km) of track, of which 517 miles (832 km) were main line and 106 miles (170.6 km) were branch lines and trackage rights. The railroad operated 3,121 pieces of rolling stock, including 82 locomotives, 67 passenger cars, 35 cabooses, and 2,957 freight cars.
In 1913 the DSS&A's freight operations peaked at almost 1 million short tons (900,000 metric tons), of which more than half were forest products. In the late 1910s, timber yields began to decline all over the Upper Peninsula. This was a blow from which the DSS&A could not recover as an independent nameplate. Its story from 1920 onwards was that of the American railway industry as a whole, with negative factors intensified by unfavorable local business conditions in northern Michigan.
In 1957, the State of Michigan opened the Mackinac Bridge
, a 5 miles (8 km) long suspension bridge carrying an all-weather hard road across the Straits of Mackinac into the Upper Peninsula. The DSS&A responded by ending its remaining passenger rail service in January 1958. In 1961, its Canadian owners merged it with the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie
, and the DSS&A became part of the Soo Line
.
However, the DSS&A's allegedly poor-quality service throughout much of the 20th century inspired angry customers to impose several uncomplimentary backronym
s on the struggling railroad, such as "Dead Slow Service & Agony" and "Damn Slow, Shabby Affair". Dissatisfied workers, meanwhile, suggested that the railroad's initials stood for "Damn Small Salary & Abuse".
The DSS&A's thinly-settled service area made it difficult for the railroad to raise adequate revenue to maintain its trackage in good condition, especially in winter. The region served by the railroad receives more snow
fall in one year than other sections of the United States east of the Rockies receive in several years combined. From 1957 through 2005, the average snowfall on the Keweenaw Peninsula has been 241 in (20.1 ft; 6.1 m) per year. Every winter, the DSS&A had to plow this snow off its tracks.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
railroad serving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan. It is commonly referred to as the Upper Peninsula, the U.P., or Upper Michigan. It is also known as the land "above the Bridge" linking the two peninsulas. The peninsula is bounded...
and the Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
shoreline of Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. It provided service from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie is a city in and the county seat of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is in the north-eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the Canadian border, separated from its twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by the St. Marys River...
, and St. Ignace, Michigan
St. Ignace, Michigan
Saint Ignace, usually written as St. Ignace, is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 2,678. It is the county seat of Mackinac County. From the Lower Peninsula, St. Ignace is the gateway to the Upper Peninsula.St...
, westward through Marquette, Michigan
Marquette, Michigan
Marquette is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Marquette County. The population was 21,355 at the 2010 census, making it the most populated city of the Upper Peninsula. Marquette is a major port on Lake Superior, primarily for shipping iron ore and is the home of Northern...
to Superior, Wisconsin
Superior, Wisconsin
Superior is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 26,960 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Highways 2 and 53, it is north of and adjacent to both the Village of Superior and the Town of Superior.Superior is at the western...
, and Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth, Minnesota
Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...
. A branchline stretched northward from Nestoria, Michigan up to the Keweenaw Peninsula
Keweenaw Peninsula
The Keweenaw Peninsula is the northern-most part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was roughly 43,200...
and terminating at Houghton, Michigan
Houghton, Michigan
Houghton is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and largest city in the Copper Country on the Keweenaw Peninsula. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,708. It is the county seat of Houghton County...
, with two branches extending further to Calumet, Michigan
Calumet, Michigan
Calumet is a village in Calumet Township, Houghton County, in the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, that was once at the center of the mining industry of the Upper Peninsula. Also known as Red Jacket, the village includes the Calumet Downtown Historic District, listed on the National...
and Lake Linden, Michigan
Lake Linden, Michigan
Lake Linden is a village in Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,081 at the 2000 census. The village is mostly within Schoolcraft Township, though a tiny portion lies in Torch Lake Township.-History:...
.
The first predecessor of the DSS&A began operations in 1855. The railroad fell under the control of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
(CPR) in 1888, and was operated in 1888-1960 as an independently-nameplated subsidiary of the CPR. In 1949, a reorganization of the DSS&A took place, creating new heralds and designating the company a railroad (RR) instead of a railway (RY). In 1961, the DSS&A RR was folded into the CPR-controlled Soo Line Railroad
Soo Line Railroad
The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , controlled through the Soo Line Corporation, and one of seven U.S. Class I railroads. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste...
. Since 2001, the remaining operating trackage of the former DSS&A has been operated by the Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
(CN). The original DSS&A trackage still operated is now limited to the areas between Trout Lake and Munising Jct., Ishpeming and Baraga, and White Pine and Marengo Jct.
Independent railroad
The development in the 1850s of hematiteHematite
Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...
iron ore mines in the Upper Peninsula hills above Marquette encouraged the development of numerous railroad plans for spur lines and connecting routes between mines, local boom towns, and the shores of the Great Lakes. While most of the Upper Peninsula's iron ore and Keweenaw copper was shipped to the rest of the United States by lake boat, the inability of water-based shippers to offer service to northern Michigan in winter encouraged railroad promoters to launch numerous plans for lines in the Upper Peninsula.
By the 1870s, a maze of corporate charters and tiny stub lines had been created or built in the central Upper Peninsula, primarily to carry iron or copper ore from the mines down to smelters and docks on the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
. In 1879-81, venture capitalists led the construction of the Detroit, Mackinac & Marquette (DM&M), a standard-gauge main line from St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinac
Straits of Mackinac
The Straits of Mackinac is the strip of water that connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and separates the Lower Peninsula of Michigan from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is a shipping lane providing passage for raw materials and finished goods, connecting, for...
, to Marquette on Lake Superior. The roadbed included a surveyor-straight 25 miles (40.2 km) east-west section, the ancestor of today's “Seney stretch”
M-28 (Michigan highway)
M-28 is an east–west state trunkline highway that almost completely traverses the Upper Peninsula in the U.S. state of Michigan, from Wakefield to near Sault Ste. Marie in Bruce Township...
. Although the state of Michigan granted the DM&M more than 1.3 million acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (5,300 km²) of state land, almost 9000 acres-per-mile (23 km²/km) as a construction subsidy, by 1886 the new DM&M went into receivership.
The DM&M was reorganized by venture capitalist James McMillan of Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, who led the rapid consolidation of the DM&M and many of the UP's smaller railroads during the early 1880s. The new Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic went into operation as a merger of these lines in December 1886.
Canadian control
The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), transcontinental line, took control of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic in 1888. In 1892-94, CPR funds financed the construction of the DSS&A westward from the Keweenaw Peninsula to Duluth.During the 1890s, the timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
industry reached the peak of its operations on the Lake Superior shoreline properties adjacent to the DSS&A's new main line, with irreplaceable old-growth white pines falling to the lumbermen's saws and axes. After white pines were exhausted, local cutters began to turn to high-quality hardwoods such as sugar maple, and then to pulpwoods such as paper birch and aspen.
At the height of the railroad's operations in 1911, the DSS&A operated 623 miles (1,002.6 km) of track, of which 517 miles (832 km) were main line and 106 miles (170.6 km) were branch lines and trackage rights. The railroad operated 3,121 pieces of rolling stock, including 82 locomotives, 67 passenger cars, 35 cabooses, and 2,957 freight cars.
In 1913 the DSS&A's freight operations peaked at almost 1 million short tons (900,000 metric tons), of which more than half were forest products. In the late 1910s, timber yields began to decline all over the Upper Peninsula. This was a blow from which the DSS&A could not recover as an independent nameplate. Its story from 1920 onwards was that of the American railway industry as a whole, with negative factors intensified by unfavorable local business conditions in northern Michigan.
In 1957, the State of Michigan opened the Mackinac Bridge
Mackinac Bridge
The Mackinac Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac to connect the non-contiguous Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan. Opened in 1957, the bridge is the third longest in total suspension in the world and the longest suspension bridge between anchorages...
, a 5 miles (8 km) long suspension bridge carrying an all-weather hard road across the Straits of Mackinac into the Upper Peninsula. The DSS&A responded by ending its remaining passenger rail service in January 1958. In 1961, its Canadian owners merged it with the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie
Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad
The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad was a Class I railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Midwest U.S. Commonly known as the Soo Line after the phonetic spelling of Sault, it was merged with several other major CP subsidiaries on January 1, 1961 to form the...
, and the DSS&A became part of the Soo Line
Soo Line Railroad
The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , controlled through the Soo Line Corporation, and one of seven U.S. Class I railroads. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste...
.
Nicknames and challenges
The DSS&A's own "official" nickname for itself was "South Shore", referring to the railroad line's route along the south shore of Lake Superior.However, the DSS&A's allegedly poor-quality service throughout much of the 20th century inspired angry customers to impose several uncomplimentary backronym
Backronym
A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....
s on the struggling railroad, such as "Dead Slow Service & Agony" and "Damn Slow, Shabby Affair". Dissatisfied workers, meanwhile, suggested that the railroad's initials stood for "Damn Small Salary & Abuse".
The DSS&A's thinly-settled service area made it difficult for the railroad to raise adequate revenue to maintain its trackage in good condition, especially in winter. The region served by the railroad receives more snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
fall in one year than other sections of the United States east of the Rockies receive in several years combined. From 1957 through 2005, the average snowfall on the Keweenaw Peninsula has been 241 in (20.1 ft; 6.1 m) per year. Every winter, the DSS&A had to plow this snow off its tracks.