Michigan is rich in minerals. Its Upper Peninsula has been a major source of iron ore for the steel industry for over a century. Both of Michigan's peninsulas have huge limestone quarries providing the calcite and dolomite needed for the steel, construction and chemical industries. Witness first-hand Michigan's railroads moving these minerals from mine and quarry to Great Lakes ships at nearby ports for transportation to their intended destinations between the years 1977 and 1991 in photographs taken by the author.

Named after the Detroit street it parallels, the Dequindre Line is a four-mile stretch of railroad right-or-way that was once part of Grand Trunk Western Railroad's Holly Subdivision. This Babbish Field Guide covers the Dequindre Line from when it was built in 1838 to present. Running from what was once Brush Street Station in downtown Detroit on the Detroit River north four-miles to Milwaukee Junction, the Dequindre Line was one of the busiest sections of railroad in Michigan up to the late 1960's. Hosting six to eight passenger trains in the modern era as well as being switch by numerous...