[1] Despite being the recipient of 1,327,042 acres (5,370.35 km2) of Upper Peninsula real estate, the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette was not a financial success.
It declared bankruptcy in summer 1886, and was allowed by its creditors to continue business under the temporary name of the Mackinaw and Marquette Railroad.
[2] In December of the same year, the McMillan interests folded the Mackinaw and Marquette Railroad into the consolidated Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway.
[1] Although the 1886 bankruptcy meant that the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad's common shareholders lost their entire investment, the reputation of company president James McMillan does not appear to have suffered thereby.
While the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad did not survive very long, several of its owners and their friends immortalized themselves on the map of Michigan.