Source: The Mining Journal
Marquette, Mi.
December 31, 1892 Saturday
Lower Peninsula Connections
The newspapers which are published along the line of the Chicago & West Michigan and Detroit, Lansing & Northern railroads are announcing now the probable transfer of both of the roads mentioned to the Brice syndicate which is identified with the DSS&A, at an early date. There have been rumors of such a deal in teh air for some months and an additional force is given to the report by the recent careful inspection of both roads by officials of the Brice road.
The Lake Erie & Western is an important factor in the Brice system and with the Chicago & West Michigan, which was extended to Petoskey last summer, pushed 40 miles further north, in Mackinaw county, a new line would be formed from Duluth to Grand Rapids where one line would diverge to Detroit while the other would run down through the southwestern corner of the state to a connection with the Lake Erie and Western.
The following dispatch from Grand Rapids covers the matter fully:
Manager Heald still insists that the rumor of a sale of the Chicago & West Michigan and teh Detroit, Lansing & Northern to the Brice system are without foundation, but other officials in a position to know intimate that there is something in it.
At Muskegon, General Manager Bradley of the Lake Erie & Western and his party made a careful and thorough examination of the comapany's property; they did the same at Grand Rapids in Traverse City, White Cloud and Ionia, and the trip over the road wasa thorough and inspection as could be had. Well informed railroad men are confident that a sale is proposed and that it will come to a head at an early date.
There is no intention of extending the West Michigan road to Chicago. The Brice syndicate now controls a line from Indianapolis to Michigan City, only a few miles from the terminal of tis road at New Buffalo and a connection between the two lines is to be built.
The syndicate also controls the DSS&A in the upper peninsula of Mi; the terminus is at St. Ignace and most of the freight goes east via the MC. By extending the C&WM from Petoskey north the Brice syndicate will have a new through route from the east and west to the northwest.
