Copper Range Railroad

Boxcars of the Copper Range Railroad.

The Copper Range Railroad (reporting marks CR, COPR) was a small railroad company that operated from 1899 to 1972 in the western Upper Peninsula of the state of Michigan, United States.

The railroad was formed in 1899 in Houghton, Michigan, owned by the Copper Range Company, a copper-mining concern with extensive holdings south of Portage Lake in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. It ran on roughly 60 miles (100 km) of trackage from Calumet, Michigan to McKeever, Michigan. The Copper Range Railroad was dissolved in 1972, although the Copper Range Company continued to operate the White Pine copper mine at White Pine, Michigan until 1995. The railroad served several copper mines in the Keweenaw Peninsula, known collectively as the Copper Range. The railroad enjoyed connections with the DSS&A (later Soo Line) in Houghton, and with the Milwaukee Road in McKeever, providing both passenger and freight service, as well as school train service. During its life span, the Copper Range Railroad rostered 24 steam and 3 diesel locomotives.

Copper Range #29 is currently under restoration at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum, in North Freedom, Wisconsin, which also owns former Copper Range Railroad Coach No. 60.

External links

• CopperRange.org Website covering the History of the Copper Range RR & Copper Mining in the Keweenaw.
• Copper Country Explorer