The Detroit and Pontiac Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan during the mid-nineteenth century. It was the sixth railroad to receive a charter from Michigan, then a territory, and the second, after the Erie & Kalamazoo, to actually operate trains.
The first attempt to connect Detroit and Pontiac by railroad had come on July 31, 1830; when the Michigan Territorial Council granted a charter to the Pontiac and Detroit Railroad.[1][2] This was the first such charter granted both in Michigan and in the Northwest Territory region.[3] Nothing came of the Pontiac & Detroit, so in 1834 the state granted a new charter to the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad. After four years the D&P began operation over a modest 12-mile (19 km) line, spurred on by a $100,000 loan from the state. The railroad finally reached Pontiac in 1843, thirteen years after the state first granted a charter for that purpose.[4]
On April 21, 1855, the D&P was consolidated with the Oakland and Ottawa Rail Road to form the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway and ceased to exist as an independent company.[4] In 1878, the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway was reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway.