Chapter 23

A New Terminal

The longest and incidentally the last piece of railroad construction  fostered by President Whitcomb is represented in the line between Owen and Duluth, built 1905-1909. The Owen-Duluth extension, 161 miles in length, projects from Owen (on the Chicago-St. Paul main) northwest on the longest stretch of straight track in the state, skirting the Chequamegon National Forest on the way to the Lac Court Oreilles Indian Reservation. Here the right-of-way cuts the southwest corner of the reservation and swings in a wide detour around the Court Oreilles Lake Region to resume the northwesterly course to Superior-Duluth.

When built, the line ranged through the one remaining section of Wisconsin which might be termed wilderness, about 4,000 square miles in area still untouched by any north and south railroad. The best timber had been slashed before 1900, but enough cutting remained to support active lumber operations. The territory north and northwest of Owen had long been a mecca for bolder sportsmen who took their deer hunting and bait casting seriously.

In the areas adjacent to the Flambeau, Jump, and Mondeaux Rivers, trackless marsh land and windfalls occurred, spotted with dense growths of pine and hemlock. Most of this area is now included in the Chequamegon National Forest.

In the 80's and 90’s, nationally known leather and tannery interests built permanent log camps here and employed large crews of woodsmen "tree-skinners" in the work of stripping the bark from live hemlock trees, the bark to be used in tanning processes. Solid trains of hemlock bark in four foot lengths, corded high and wired on flat cars were no uncommon sight on the Ashland and St. Paul divisions of the Central as late as the middle 90's.

Much of this area remained to be settled and developed when work on the Owen-Duluth extension commenced in 1905.

Exclusively a Wisconsin Central project, the extension was legally established within two corporations; namely, the Owen & Northern Railway Company, incorporated May 24, 1904; and the Lake Superior & Southeastern Railroad Company, incorporated October 8, 1904. The former received a charter to construct the line from Owen to Ladysmith, 45.64 miles; the latter chartered to continue the project from Ladysmith to Superior, l08 miles.

The Owen & Northern had done some clearing and grading of the roadbed through the agencies of independent contractors not affiliates with the Central and was engaged in construction work when sold to the Central June 11, 1905. The Central assumed the contracts end completed the 45.52 miles between Owen and Ladysmith in July. This section of the extension was opened to traffic August 6, 1906. At Ladysmith direct connections and freight transfer facilities were established with the Soo Line east and west Main line.

In 1906 contracts were awarded by the Central to H. F. Balch, Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and the Lantry Construction Company of Kansas City, to construct the railroad from Ladysmith to the Superior-Duluth area. The Balch contract covered construction from Ladysmith to Superior, 103 miles; the Lantry Construction Company contracted to execute the work on the Duluth terminal and southward to Superior, 7 miles.

The Lake Superior & Southeastern experienced difficulties and had made little progress before it was purchased by the Wisconsin Central Railway Company June 11, 1906.

From here in, the Central handled its own construction work, Superior to Ladysmith, under the direction of Chief Engineer C. N. Kalk, who succeeded Robert Tweedy.

The right-of-way from Ladysmith to Superior leads through some of the most extensive lowlands and "blue-berry marshes" in the state, all of which required filling or build-up pile trestle work. For two and one-half years steam shovels threw dirt; work trains hauled vast quantities of ballast and filling material for embankments across the marshlands. Five large steel bridges and forty-five pile trestle works were needed to carry the Central across Sawyer and Douglas Counties into Superior.

This portion of the Duluth extension was not opened for traffic until January 14, 1909.   For about a year traffic on the Owen-Superior section was confined to freight movements only, and as the roadbed became firmly fixed and improved, passenger trains entered the extension on regular schedules in 1910. The new line made the Central the shortest route between Superior and Chicago.

Probably the toughest part of the Central's job in building the Duluth extension arose within the city of Duluth where the right-of-way lies along Superior Street in the solid rock. The contractors, Lantry Construction Company, of Kansas City, undertook the work of blasting through 1800 feet of hard rock to reach the new passenger station.

The terminals of the Central at Superior and Duluth are wholly owned. From Superior to Duluth the Central mileage is 7, and in covering this route the facilities of the Soo Line, the Interstate Bridge, and the Duluth Terminal Railway are used in part by freight traffic. Except the Interstate Bridge and approaches, the passenger trains of the Central operated on their own rails between Superior and Duluth.

In 1909-1910, as a final move to provide a straight shot line to Duluth and a shorter easier route to St. Paul, the Central built the Spencer-Owen cut off  involving about 19 miles of construction. 

The new cut-off shortened the overall distance From Chicago to St. Paul and Duluth by about 9 miles; moreover, eliminated the Abbotsford triangle, always a "sore thumb" in the affairs of the Operations Department. In 1910 when the Spencer-Owen cut off opened the new gate to the north, Owen inherited the division headquarters previously located at Abbotsford.

President Whitcomb did not stay to witness the fruit on of his well designed scheme for the Duluth Line, and retired from office in 1906. Earlier in 1906, the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad entered the sphere of influence in the affairs of the Central, and Wm. A. Bradford, a former director of the C.H.&D. took the office vacated by H. F. Whitcomb.