Trains to Hamburg

Everything changed when trains came to Hamburg in the 1880s. The village had been connected to neighboring towns only by old Native American trails and dirt roads, and travel on foot, by horse, or by wagon was slow and difficult, leaving residents with limited access to markets and medical care. The Grand Trunk Railroad line was built through in 1883 and the Ann Arbor Railroad followed in 1886, bringing jobs, business, supplies, and communications. The trains also brought vacationers to lake resorts, and in winter they distributed thousands of blocks of Zukey Lake ice to iceboxes far and wide. Zukey Lake ice was used in Ann Arbor Railroad refrigerator cars until electrical refrigeration began in the 1920s.

Michigan · United States