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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
Excursions Over Rare PM Indiana Mileage Set for August 9 - On Saturday, August 9, the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum will offer five-mile round trip excursions over the Chesapeake & Indiana's ex-PM trackage between Hanna and Thomaston, Indiana. As part of the Hanna Sesquicentennial Celebration, trips will leave Hanna at 11am, Noon, 1pm and 2pm (Central Time). This trackage is part of the Wellsboro-La Crosse segment that is all that remains of the PM line from New Buffalo to La Crosse. Hanna is located on US-30, between Wanatah and Hamlet, Indiana. More information can be found on the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum's web site.
The trackage in question was part of the PM's "Turkey Trail" line which connected Grand Rapids and Saginaw by way of Elmdale, Lowell, Greenville, Edmore, Alma and St. Louis. The Mid-Michigan Railroad had operated the remaining Greenville-Elmdale segment since 1987, when it served appliance and auto parts manufacturers in Greenville. Frigidaire's March, 2006 closing of its manufacturing plant in Greenville eliminated the last substantial source of traffic on the line. The filing indicates that the MMRR has executed a Memorandum of Understanding
with the West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition for the sale of
the right-of-way. Upon approval of the application, it intends to remove
all rails and other track materials on the line, leaving bridges in place.
Once that is completed, it will sell the right-of-way to the Trails and
Greenways Coalition for development as a recreational trail.
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Pere
Marquette Historical Society members receive six issues of PM
Tracks, the bimonthly PMHS newsletter, and two issues of Pere
Marquette Rails, the PMHS magazine, each 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. The 2007 PMHS Members' Get-Together was held on Saturday, August 4 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel (formerly the Radisson) at M-37 and 28th Street SE, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Plans for the 2008 Get-Together are being developed.
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.
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 PMHS President Art Million, who is not only the pioneer PM historian, but has written most of the books and articles published about the PM over the past several decades. Art has also 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 to  All original contents of this Web site are Copyright © 2007, John F. ("Fritz") Milhaupt, on behalf of the Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc., All Rights Reserved. |
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RailAmerica Files to Abandon Lowell-Greenville Segment of former
PM "Turkey Trail" - On