In 1881, George Farnsworth and his partners in Wisconsin's Oconto Lumber Company founded the Bay de Noquet (later Bay de Noc) Lumber Company, which built a sawmill in Nahma, opening in 1882. The Nahma & Northern Railroad, also sometimes known as the Whiskey and Northern Railroad, was built in 1902 and expanded to a total of seventy-five miles of track servicing fifteen logging camps. In 1912, to help service the expanding system, the Bay de Noquet Lumber Company bought #5.
This coal burning Prairie type (2-6-2) engine was built in 1912 by Baldwin. Weighing 78,000 lbs, 58,000 lbs on its 42” drivers, it has a 13.3 sq ft grate, 74 sq ft firebox and total heating surface of 767 sq ft. Operating at a boiler pressure of 180 psi, it delivered 13,544 lbs tractive effort.
The Bay de Noquet Lumber Company established the town of Nahma in 1881. When it quit logging in the area in 1951, it sold the entire town to the American Playground Device Company of Anderson, IN, for $250,000. The company planned to build a tourist resort there but the plan never got off the ground. In 1959, the Company sold all its land holdings.
ln 1989, the Nahma Historical Society obtained a State grant and, with financial contributions from local residents, bought #5 from American Playground.
The engine is on display in a small recreation area on Gg Rd and Wells Rd.
