St Croix County

1.) Cady Mills Railroad.

This railroad was owned by the DC Davis & Sons Lumber Co. It was originally constructed in 1871 as a horsedrawn wooden tram. The first trip with conventional railroad equipment occured on September 1,1884. The Cady Mills was later incorporated as a common carrier on Mar 22, 1887. The line was nicknamed the "Silver Plate" road, possibly because of considerable costs incurred to build it. ($8,000, a large sum of money in those days.) D.C. Davis had two mills located on the line. One mill was at Cady Mills (section 13 town 28N 15W), the other at East Cadt Mills located in section 24 of the same town. The Cady Mills connected with the CSPM&O at Hersey. Operations were discontinued in 1893.

2.)Wildwood Logging Branch RR

This line was owned by the St Croix Timber & Land Co, which was half owned by Minnesota Senator Dwight Sabin, who had interest in several other Wisconsin logging railroads. This line connected the sawmill town of Wildwood with the CSPM&O main at Woodville. It was constructed in the fall of 1883, and opened for business the following January. In 1889 it was renamed the Woodville & Southern Railroad. The line was extended to Spring Valley to reach iron deposits that Sabin also had an interest in. The company wasn't successful, and operations ceased in 1890. It was sold July 11,1892 to the Minnesota & Wisconsin Railroad, (A company in which Sabin also held an interest) which promptly went bankrupt an was sold to the CSPM&O. What was the Wildwood Logging Branch became the northern portion of the CSPM&O's branch to Weston. Wildwood itself became a ghost town when the mill shut down.

3.)Glenwood & Northern RR

What became the G&N was constructed in 1890 and 1891 by the Wisconsin Central. It ran northerly and easterly from Glenwood to Graytown in northwestern Dunn County. By agreement signed with the Glenwood Mfg Co, the WC and Glenwood each paid half the cost of grading the line; the WC laid the track and leased it to Glenwood Mfg at 6% per year on the remaining half of the grading costs. The line would be operated by Glenwood Mfg, and ownership would revert back to the WC after a period of ten years. In 1891, Glenwood Mfg began operation of the line as the Glenwood & Northeastern RR. The G&NE operated passenger service in the caboose of the log trains to serve the various logging camps along the right of way. Glenwood Mfg discontinued its operations at the end of the ten year lease in 1901. Following this, there was an effort by the WC to get another operator for the line. A local group of citizens incorporated the Glenwood & Northern on Aug 8,1902 to operate it as a public common carrier. This was unsuccessful and the G&N was abandoned for good in 1904. In 1910, another railroad called the Prairie Farm & Southwestern was incorporated. It was to use portions of the old G&N grde for its route. The PF&SW was never built.