My main concern about this subject is learning what gage was originally intended for the Hecla & Torch Lake Railroad.
In considering all of the evidence, I have reached the following conclusion:
There was an error in specifying the gage for the first locomotive. I do not believe the error has ever been explained or quantified. The letter from mine manager Alexander Agassiz purports to do both, but the amount of the error does not correlate with the nature of the error, so one or the other must be wrong. And a third possibility is that both are wrong. If this is the case, it is ironic that Mr. Agassiz made an error in explaining the mistake that was similar to the actual error in the mistake.
The railroad was built in 1867, and the Michigan State Gazeteer of 1875 makes reference to the H&TL as being four-foot-gage. We know that after the mistake in specifying the gage of the first locomotive, the gage was changed to 4’-1”. This occurred before the railroad was finished and put into operation, and 4’-1” remained the gage from the start of operation until the line was standard-gaged in 1907.
Therefore, the reference to four-foot-gage by the Michigan State Gazeteer is not correct. It might have simply been a mistake. But official records often reflect an earlier status, which has since been revised. Records tend to lag behind in that regard.
We can probably assume that the Michigan State Gazeteer did not actually measure the gage. Their reporting of the gage was likely based on information they received from the H&TL. If H&TL told the Michigan State Gazeteer that the gage of their railroad was four feet, they might have provided that information in error. But then that would amount to a second gage interpretation error involving this railroad that would be completely independent of the error made with the gage of the first locomotive.
The more likely explanation is that the H&TL told the Michigan State Gazeteer that they were building a four-foot-gage railroad because that is what they were doing in 1867 before they ordered their first locomotive. And that would explain why the Michigan State Gazeteer was still reporting the H&TL to be four-foot-gage in their 1875 report.
