4. Making Connections When the Illinois & Michigan Canal opened for business in 1848 there were less than 100 miles of operating railroad track in Illinois. A group of Will County citizens started a plank road company in 1849 with plans to build from Oswego to Joliet and then straight east to the Indiana border. A Railroad is Built The Michigan Central Railroad completed it's railroad line across Michigan from Detroit to Niles and New Buffalo around 1848. Passengers would get off the train in Michigan and take a stage coach or steamboat into Chicago. The Michigan Central R.R. was looking for ways to push it's railroad across northern Indiana and through Illinois into Chicago. According to Walter Havighurst, "the Michigan Central company bought stock in the New Albany and Salem Railroad of Indiana and the newly projected Illinois Central." Michigan Central backers were also probably among the Joliet and Northern Indiana supporters. In 1852 the Illinois Central Railroad line was under construction. The Michigan Central had obtained trackage rights across Indiana and was busy connecting with the Illinois Central at Kensington so it could run trains into Chicago. In 1854 the Joliet and Northern Indiana Railroad was formed in Michigan City, Indiana with many of the same subscribers as the Joliet and Northern Indiana Plank Road. The plank road company and the railroad consolidated once both state legislatures had passed laws enabling such interstate mergers. John Murray Forbes, the President of the Michigan Central Railroad, and his associates were very involved in building and financing the mid western railroads. Their goal was to build an integrated system across Illinois and Iowa and beyond. During the 1850's, Forbes and his partners merged a number of Illinois railroad lines into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. They built the first railroad bridges across the Mississippi and proceeded to buy up lines in Iowa and further west. According to Illinois Central Rail Road historian, Carlton Corliss, The Joliet Cutoff was a critical link when it first opened. The Chicago & Mississippi Railroad (aka the Alton Road) started operating between Alton and Bloomington, Illinois during the spring of 1854. In August the Alton Road was completed to Joliet and on September 7, the Joliet Cutoff was completed from Joliet east to Matteson. Alton bound trains ran from Chicago to Matteson and then over the Joliet and Northern Indiana Railroad west to Joliet. From Joliet south the trains used the Alton Road's own rails. This route was discontinued the next year when on July 4, 1856 the Alton Road completed it's line between Joliet and Chicago. Railroad poster from the 1850s click to enlarge