History
The AL&TB was one of several railroads chartered in the 1850s to take advantage of a land grant program instituted by the federal government. Under an act of 1856 and successive acts Michigan had in its gift over 5,000,000 acres (20,000 km2) of land which could be given to railroads (which would then re-sell these lands for a profit) in exchange for constructing certain routes. At the heart of Michigan's network at the time were the Michigan Central Railroad and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, both of which ran east-west across the southern Lower Peninsula. As proposed in the route would run from "Amboy by Hillsdale and Lansing, and from Grand Rapids to some point on or near Traverse Bay." This route would bisect the existing railroad network and provide a railroad connection to Lansing, the new state capital.
Almost immediately local interests intervened: the cities of Owosso and Saginaw, which sit northeast of Lansing, successfully lobbied to change the route to run through their cities, then northwest to Traverse Bay. This was a pronounced change from the initial plan, in which the line ran in a straight line northwest from Lansing. The new route's odd shape prompted a Lansing newspaper to dub it the "Ram's Horn Railroad." That epithet had been applied earlier in the decade by Iowa newspaperman James Morgan to a proposed road from Dubuque to Keokuk, whose route was also determined by political considerations and ultimately was not built.
The company began by building a 28-mile (45 km) line from Lansing to Owosso, which it completed in November 1862.
Read more about this topic: Amboy, Lansing And Traverse Bay Railroad
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