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Welcome to the official web site of the Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.!The Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc. (PMHS) was founded in 1995 as a means of collecting and disseminating information regarding the Pere Marquette Railroad. Our membership is made up of historians, former employees, modelers, and railfans. If you are interested in the PM, we encourage you to join. The Pere Marquette Railroad Company was formed in 1900 by the merger of numerous Michigan railroads, the most prominent of them being the Flint and Pere Marquette, the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western, and the Chicago and West Michigan. During its existence, it came under the control of several other railroads at one time or another, including the Baltimore and Ohio and the Erie. In the 1920s, it came under the control of Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen, two financiers from Cleveland who also controlled the Nickel Plate, the Erie, and the Chesapeake and Ohio. Over the years, the C&O gained more and more control over the PM, until on June 6, 1947 the PM was formally merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio. The Pere Marquette operated over trackage stretching from Buffalo, New York to Chicago, and from Bay View (Petoskey) Michigan to Toledo, Ohio, with trackage in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario. In addition to its strictly rail operations, the PM also operated railway car ferries on the Detroit and St. Clair rivers, and a fleet of car ferries from Ludington across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, Kewaunee and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Nearly all of the trackage CSX operates in Michigan today is former PM trackage. Please Note: The PMHS is unable to provide
information regarding specific PM employees,
as we do not possess any of the PM's employment records. News Restoring PMHS Publications to a More Predictable Cadence - With the recent publication of issue number 116 of PM Tracks, efforts are under way to return our publication schedule to a predictable cadence. The next issue is being edited now, and should be published by the end of October.
2018 NCR NMRA Convention to Include Presentation on PM and C&O Passenger Trains and How to Model Them - Fritz Milhaupt will present "PM and C&O Michigan Passenger Service 1946-71 and How To Model It" as part of the North Central Region, National Model Railroad Association Convention this October in Lansing, Michigan. This presentation will cover the history of passenger service on the PM and the C&O in Michigan from 1946 until Amtrak Day in 1971, and how to model the variety of locomotives and rolling stock that supported that service. The Convention, "Lansing Lashup" will be held October, 11-14, 2018 at the Ramada Lansing Hotel and Conference Center on Saginaw highway in Lansing, Michigan. Details can be found at https://nmrancrdiv5.com/2018-ncr-convention/
Classic Trains' "Great Trains Heartland" Issue Features Pere Marquette Streamliner - Classic Trains magazine's Spring 2017 special issue, "Great Trains Heartland" features a six-page article, with color and black and white photographs, which tells the story of the inauguration of the Pere Marquette's 1946 Pere Marquette streamliner. This special issue went on sale in April 2017.
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Joining the PMHS
Pere
Marquette Historical Society members receive six issues of PM
Tracks, the PMHS newsletter each membership year. Members also receive
notices of special projects, such as our
custom-run PM freight cars.
We hold an annual "get-together" for members and their immediate families each year at a town along the former-PM right-of-way.
To join the Pere Marquette Historical Society, send a check or money order for $30.00 (Canadian residents $35.00 US) payable to the "Pere Marquette Historical Society" to:
| Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc. Membership Officer P.O. Box 422 Grand Haven, MI 49417-0422 |
A copy of our membership application form is available on this Web site.
The Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization incorporated in the State of Michigan and recognized by the Internal Revenue Service.
Acknowledgments
This site would not be possible without the gracious assistance of fellow PMHS members and numerous others who have contributed information and photographs for use on this site, most notably:
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And of course, no work on the PM would be complete without acknowledging the fine work of late PMHS President Art Million, who was not only a pioneer PM historian, but has written most of the books and articles published about the PM over the past several decades. Art provided valuable background information (and error-correction!) for this site.
Use of this Web site and the materials contained within it is subject to
specific
terms and conditions.
Do you have questions or comments
regarding this Web site? E-mail  All original contents of this Web site are Copyright © 2018, John F. ("Fritz") Milhaupt, on behalf of the Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc., All Rights Reserved. |