Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad

From Cincinnati to the Straits of Mackinac

In 1870, as if Kalamazoo could not get enough railroads, the work crews of another outfit clanged down a main line into town. The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad (GR&I), bound for the far north and its timber wealth, gave Kalamazoo another north-south railroad and another connection with Grand Rapids.

Catalysts for the GR&I were the 1850 land grant acts approved by the Federal government to aid the construction of railroads. Michigan was awarded more than 3.8 million acres of public land under the Federal legislation and the State threw in nearly 1.7 million acres of what were termed as “swamp” lands to sweeten the pot. The acts called for giving railroads alternate sections on both sides of the track within a distance of six miles.

The GR&I management was bent on going for the land grant along a line connecting Grand Rapids with Traverse Bay. It was decided that the southern terminal would be Fort Wayne, Indiana, with the main iron going all  the way to the Straits of Mackinac.

Then the company skidded to a halt. Financing seemed impossible to come by. To make matters worse, the Michigan legislature ordered the line’s charter revoked if 20 miles of line north of Grand Rapids were not completed by July, 1869.

In desperation Fort Wayne residents voted a $150,000 bond issue to finance the 20 miles and save the line. A court fight supported by companies who hoped to get the land grant for themselves blocked the move.

GR&I’s chances to preserve the grant looked dim, but a Grand Rapids Federal judge saved the day. He appointed the Continental Improvement Company as receiver for the GR&I and ordered the firm to build the 20 mile segment to save the land grant.

This was a double dose of good fortune for the GR&I. The court’s ruling assured that the land grant was safe. And the Continental Improvement Company was controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was in the market for feeder lines to flesh out its newly acquired Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago. The GR&I line leading into the tall timber looked golden to the bosses of the Pennsy and construction leaped forward on the Michigan line.

Workmen hurried the 20 miles of mainline across swamps north of Grand Rapids, the grade through Kalamazoo was laid with rails and by October, 1870, GR&I trains were running to Grand Rapids.

The GR&I continued to grow. Cadillac was reached in 1871 and by July, 1882, the Straits of Mackinac resounded to the first GR&I locomotive whistles. The victory was a hollow one. The Michigan Central beat the GR&I to the Straits by a year.

Although it boasted a long mainline and lots of potential, the GR&I suffered with the decline of the lumber business and never was very profitable. By 1921 it was leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Profits were not in the forefront of Kalamazoo minds, though, the day the GR&I first pulled into town. Flags and bunting decorated the locomotive and the cars that carried Kalamazoo dignitaries to Vicksburg for a celebration and a picnic. The coming of the GR&I caused the Gazette to wax eloquent about the line that bound northern and southern Michigan together and released dwellers in the far north from “solitary confinement.”

The beautiful Grand Rapids & Indiana depot and freight house at Pitcher and East Main Streets found new life from 1963 until the mid 1980s as the Whistle Stop Restaurant. (The building has since been restored and now houses the local offices of the Arcus Foundation and the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.)

*In 1975 the Michigan Department of Transportation bought the railroad and it largely ceased operation in 1984, although the portion of track from Cadillac north to Petoskey is operated by Great Lakes Central Railroad. The Michigan Northern Railway also operated some of the GR&I system until the mid-1980s in northern Michigan.

During the 1990s much of the old railroad right of way between the north side of Grand Rapids and Cadillac, Michigan, was turned into the White Pine Trail State Park. A portion of the old railroad right of way just north of Vicksburg is part of the Vicksburg Trailway from Towline Ave to East TU Ave.

From Next Stop Kalamazoo! A History of Railroading in Kalamazoo County
Written by David C. Hager. Published by the Kalamazoo Public Museum, 1976
Except (*) from Wikipedia
Edited for context by Kalamazoo Public Library staff, February 2025