Lyman Dayton, a local businessman put up $10,000 of his own money to do the original surveying work and served as the railroad's president until his death in 1865.
Dayton was succeeded as president by Frank Hamilton Clark, a Philadelphia banker whose family firm gave Cooke his start in the financial industry.
On August 1 of the same year, the first passenger trains started running between the Twin Cities and Duluth.
The LS&M was a victim of the Panic of 1873, as Jay Cooke's company was overextended and burdened with financial commitments to the Northern Pacific Railway.
The name of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad (LSMRR) was revived in 1981 when the volunteer Lake Superior Transportation Club incorporated a heritage railroad company to offer a passenger excursion service along the Saint Louis River.