Affectionately known as "The Haywire", the Manistique and Lake Superior Railroad was chartered in 1909 to tap into the prospering lumber industry in Michigan's upper peninsula. It ran from Manistique, on Lake Michigan (utilizing a connection with the Ann Arbor Railroad and its car ferries there), northward to a connection with the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway (Canadian National Railway today) at Doty.

The general decline of the lumber industry over the ensuing decades, and the transfer of freight travel from railroad to highways brought on financial difficulties for the M&LS. It was ultimately abandoned in 1968.