Wisconsin Railfans: Old Wisconsin Railroad Maps from Library of Congress - Trains Magazine

MidlandMike

The extension connecting Mineral Point to Dubuque would have been handy to connect the lead mining district to Dubuque and the Misissippi Valley where lead shot towers and other facilities were set up. A famous one was at Dubuque:

Well what I came up with is this:

1. Mineral Point Railroad builds from Mineral Point, WI to Warren, IL connection to Illinois Central Line.

2. Mineral Point Acquires or builds branch from Calamine, WI to Platteville, WI

3. Milwaukee Road acquires Mineral Point Railroad and branch and doesn't necessarily like the traffic outflow on the IC at Warren and extends from Monroe, WI to Gratiot, WI and connects with Mineral Point Railroad thus having a connection all the way to Plateville, WI.

4. Galena and Southern Wisconsin builds a narrow gauge line from Galena, IL North into Wisconsin and eventually connects with Platteville.    C&NW buys the Galena and Southern Wisconsin and standard guages the entire line and extends it further North to Montefort, WI to connect with C&NW.

So somewhere I am guessing Milwaukee connects with the C&NW line in either Platteville, WI or East of the city.    Hence thats how they end up with that drawing on the map.    I cannot find any trace of the Southern Wisconsin otherwise.

Some of the lines were torn up in the 1920's.

Gratiot, WI to Warren, IL - IC connection for Mineral Point Line was abandoned and torn up in the 1920's.    Likewise most of the C&NW line north of Galena, IL was torn up in the 1920's or 1930's.    So apparently traffic fell off after 1920.    Milwaukee maintained it's Mineral Point to Monroe, WI connection well into the 1980's.    I don't know when it abandoned the line to Platteville, WI from Calamine though.........I see pictures of it operating into the 1970's

Here is a 1909 map of the C&NW showing the Galena Line:

Here is the text of the Mineral Point Line construction:

Pictures of the Milwaukee on their Mineral Point and Monroe to Platteville

Galena and Southern Wisconsin Railroad:

It's interesting that both the C&NW and the Mineral Point and Northern called it quits on the region in the 1920's and 1930's but the Milwaukee held onto it's lines for almost 50 more years........which is probably another reason they went under.