Starting in 1861, the Civil War created an immediate Northern demand for iron ore to make weapons. William B. Ogden, an owner of the Chicago & Northwest Railroad Co., knew of the plentiful iron mines of the Upper Peninsula and, deciding it would take too long to extend the railway farther north to Michigan, in 1862 "leap-frogged" the wilderness to organize and build the Peninsula Railroad. The line was intended to run exclusively from Escanaba harbor to the Jackson Mines at Negaunee and then on to the mines in Marquette. When completed in 1863, the Peninsula railway was consolidated into the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. In its first year, 31,072 tons of iron ore were carried by rail to Escanaba harbor and shipped to Midwestern mills along the Great Lakes.