E&LS puts on a Superior Trip
by Janet and John Valek

For the iron ore and logging enthusiasts, this trip was a unique opportunity to spend two days riding 188 miles of Escanaba & Lake Superior trackage from Kingsford, Mich. northwest to Sidnaw and east to Nestoria in the beautiful central region of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Our trip began on July 18 in Kingsford, situated at the Michigan-Wisconsin border. Twenty-five cars assembled at a crossing near the E&LS engine house. Along with the motor cars were two hy-rail pickups and a vintage 1950's Northern Pacific hy-rail station wagon. After a safety briefing by Mike Paul and introductions to Big John's E&LS crew, we proceeded through downtown Kingsford and its sister city, Iron Mountain . E&LS employees kept us tightly bunched and flagged the crossings for us. This was no small task as there were 15 crossings to get out of town. Our E&LS crew stayed with us throughout the two-day trip, assisting us at all of the major crossings and maintaining radio contact at the front, middle, and back of our group. People gathered alongside the railroad right-of-way to watch this colorful entourage go through. One by-stander remembered seeing this group travel through last summer (this was the Marinette, Wis. to Ontonagon, Mich. MCCA run organized by Mike Paul with E&LS).

After passing through Kingsford-Iron Mountain, the route headed 23 miles north running parallel to Michigan Hwy. 95. With the E&LS crew still assisting at the crossings, we traveled the Michigan north woods through Randville and Sagola. Our destination was Channing, where the group stopped for a short break. From Channing we turned west skirting the south end of the big Michigamme Reservoir. Several rivers feed into this reservoir, which is home to a variety of Upper Peninsula wildlife. This region is chock full of deciduous tamarack trees and white pine. Through the wetlands we saw deer, porcupine, muskrat dens, beaver dams, and even a turtle crossing the track. We kept a vigilant watch for moose as this has been moose country ever since the mid-1980's when the State of Michigan traded wild turkeys with Ontario, Canada for moose. The moose were released about 30 miles north in the Lake Michigamme region. Unfortunately, we did not see any. 

About 20 miles later, we chugged into Amasa at about noon. Amasa is an old logging town situated at the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 141 and the Hemlock River. We were hungry, but there was no sign that this was going to be a lunch stop. Another 27 miles and 1.5 hours later we arrived at Sidnaw and our lunch break. But before we could relax a bit, we had to move our cars from the line headed to Ontonagon to the track heading northeast to Nestoria. Up to this point, the E&LS trackage we had been traveling had once belonged to the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific and been the route of such proud trains as the Copper Country Limited (it was a homecoming for our Fairmont MT19 because it was originally built for the CMStP&P and assigned Number 8002).

At Sidnaw we transferred our motor cars to newly acquired E&LS trackage (former Soo Line right-of-way) for our final leg to Nestoria. Traffic was busy in Sidnaw as we moved the cars from one track to the other. Somewhere between Amasa and Sidnaw we moved into the Eastern time-zone even though we were heading west! Breakdowns were minimal and we continued to make good time as we headed out again to our final destination, Nestoria. This 23 miles of trackage has not had commercial traffic for several years. On this part of the trip we ran parallel to Hwy. 141 and then 41.

The weather had started out sunny, but became cloudier throughout the day. The night before it had rained heavily and just west of Nestoria we encountered a stretch with water around the track and some evidence of speedy maintenance done by E&LS to accommodate our group. Upon arrival at Nestoria, we turned our cars in preparation for Sunday's departure just as our motorcoach arrived to take us to our motels in Three Lakes and the surrounding area. Little remains of Nestoria, once a busy rail interchange.

Sunday morning we were picked up in front of our motels by the bus and transported down to our waiting cars for an 8 a.m. departure. Our many thanks to the E&LS employee who spent the night by the track protecting our cars from would-be souvenir hunters. By 8:30 we were on our way back. As often seems to be the case, we made faster time on the return trip. By 10:00 we were in Sidnaw and turned south toward Channing. The weather had been threatening, and in Sidnaw it started to rain. During our short break everyone was busily rolling down curtains and donning rain jackets. We stopped in Amasa by the old railroad depot for lunch; we were finally going to see Amasa. For years the sign on Highway 141 pointing to Downtown Amasa had aroused our curiosity , and now it  was about to be satisfied. A small community of neat, well cared for homes and businesses, Amasa was and still is a logging town. A local bar and grill served a wide variety of good food including their locally renowned grilled hamburgers.

Later, as we waited on the outskirts of Iron Mountain for the rest of the group to catch up, we looked down and saw iron ore pellets scattered on the ties. A beautiful reminder of the history of this area and the role the railroad has played in its economy and in bringing the riches of the mining industry to market. Our many thanks and appreciation to Mike Paul for his organization of this great trip and to John Larkin and the E&LS Railroad for their hospitality .Special thanks to Big John and his crew for their assistance at the crossings and throughout the trip.

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Last Edited 28 January, 2018