[1][a] The company's purpose was to build from the main line of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad around Little Traverse Bay to Harbor Springs, Michigan, a distance of approximately 6 miles (9.7 km).

[1] Although the officers and board of directors included a number of local men from Harbor Springs, the company owned no rolling stock of its own and the Grand Rapids and Indiana exercised control from the outset.

The junction point on the Grand Rapids and Indiana line was at "Kegomic," near Bay View.

[5] The Bay View, Little Traverse and Mackinaw Railroad was sold to the Grand Rapids and Indiana on January 17, 1888.

[2] The Grand Rapids and Indiana extended the line, now called the Harbor Springs branch, a further 0.5 miles (0.80 km) north in 1901; this extension was abandoned between 1904 and 1913.