ISHPEMING, Mich. — Clint Jones, president of the family-owned Mineral Range Railroad based in Ishpeming, died of health complications at Marquette General Hospital in Marquette, Mich., on April 19, 2024. He was 79.
Son Chris Jones told Trains News Wire in a phone interview that he and his brother Pete will continue business as usual for the successful short line.
Clint Jones began his railroading career as an electrician helper at the Milwaukee Road shops in Milwaukee in the mid-1960s.
“He enjoyed being part of the business,” Chris Jones said. “He was never one of those guys that would sit in a rocking chair, staring out the window, during retirement. He had his pulse on the business.’’
Between 1978 and 1985, he was involved in the operation of the Chippewa River Railroad, Algoma Railroad, and Brillion & Forest Junction Railway. He also worked as a trainmaster in nearby Marquette in the late 1980s and early 1990s for Wisconsin Central.
The Mineral Range Railroad was featured in a June 2022 Trains Magazine feature, “Home, Home on the Mineral Range.”
“Clint Jones had many strengths besides a good old-fashioned work ethic,” said the article’s author, William Beecher. “He not only understood the railroad in upper Michigan and the extremely difficult environment that this alone presents, but his deep understanding of markets, the players and opportunities made him the complete force in the region. May his legacy live on.”
“Clint worked as a conductor on the E&LS {Escanaba & Lake Superior} briefly in the early 1980s when I was working as the agent at Channing,” said Trains correspondent Steve Glischinski. “He was a veritable encyclopedia of railroading in the Upper Midwest, especially when it came to railroading in the Upper Peninsula. I really enjoyed talking with him about all his railroading adventures.”
Greg Vreeland, president of the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad said, “Clint Jones was an old-school railroader whose lifelong dedication to the short line industry in the upper Midwest was unparalleled. I was inspired by his vast experience beginning in the 1960s.
“He truly showed me that personal passion for small railroads could make an operation a success. The wide variety of equipment he touched through the years was amazing. From steam locomotives to first-generation diesels and great passenger car saves, the heritage railroad industry would not be the same.”
His railroad career and unsurpassed knowledge of Upper Peninsula railroading was invaluable to author Dave Schauer of Duluth, Minn., in providing information for books on the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad. “He was Mr. Upper Peninsula, for sure,’’ Schauer said.
Much of Clint Jones’ photo collection is now at the Lake States Railway Historical Association in Baraboo, Wis..
At this time, the family reports service arrangements are pending.
Clint was a wonderful person to spend time with and I always enjoyed the opportunities I had to work and talk with him. His passing is quite a loss.