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Overview | |
---|---|
Locale | Arkansas, Rogers and Siloam Springs |
Dates of operation | 1908–1911 |
Successor | Kansas City and Memphis Railway |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
The Arkansas, Oklahoma and Western Railroad (AO&W) was a small railroad company in Northwest Arkansas, United States.
It began operations as the Rogers Southwestern that reached Springtown, Arkansas (21 mi or 34 km southwest of Rogers) on August 15, 1906. It then reorganized under the name Arkansas, Oklahoma and Western and reached Siloam Springs on January 1, 1908. The standard gauge AO&W, also called the "All Off & Walk", was 30 miles (48 km) in length. [1] It hoped to prosper by serving fruit growers in south-central Benton County (where it got its nickname "Fruit Belt Line") and by serving as a Kansas City Southern Railway feeder at Siloam Springs. [2]
The "Fruit Belt Line" and the Monte Ne Railway (a 5 mi or 8.0 km standard gauge line opened in 1902 for tourist traffic between Lowell and the new resort at Monte Ne), after both going bankrupt were merged into the newly formed Kansas City and Memphis Railway in 1911, and headquartered in Rogers, Arkansas. The new company built a branch to Fayetteville from Cave Springs that was not successful because it largely duplicated the Frisco line between Rogers and Fayetteville. Burdened by over expansion and inadequate traffic volume, the KC&M entered receivership on July 14, 1914. Efforts to revive the line were not successful and the 61-mile (98 km) Kansas City and Memphis system was abandoned in pieces between March and October 1918. The KC&M abandonment was the second largest U.S. railroad abandonment of 1918.
In Summer 1910, the AO&W constructed a concrete underpass beneath the Frisco track north of Lowell. The purpose was to connect the isolated Monte Ne Railroad to the AO&W. Although the Monte Ne Railroad was a failure as a passenger carrier, it enjoyed a substantial volume of outgoing freight traffic from the Rogers White Lime Company located at Limedale on the Monte Ne Railroad. Construction of the underpass enabled the Monte Ne to turn over much of its outbound freight business to the AO&W (KC&M) rather than competitor Frisco. The concrete underpass bears a date of 1910 and is still crossed by trains of Frisco Central Division successor Arkansas and Missouri Railroad.
Siloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States, and located on the western edge of the Northwest Arkansas metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 17,287. The community was founded in 1882 and was characterized by the purported healing powers of the spring water feeding Sager Creek and trading with nearby Native American tribes. The city shares a border on the Arkansas–Oklahoma state line with the city of West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma, which is within the Cherokee Nation territory. It is home of John Brown University.
The Kansas City Southern Railway Company was an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operates in 10 Midwestern and Southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. KCS owns the shortest north-south rail route between Kansas City, Missouri, and several key ports along the Gulf of Mexico.
The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to November 21, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. In 1980 it was purchased by and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", was a Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The Delta Valley and Southern Railway is a short-line railroad headquartered in Wilson, Arkansas.
The Fort Smith and Western Railway was a railroad that operated in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Monte Ne was a health resort and planned community established and operated by William Hope Harvey from 1901 into the 1920s. It was located in a valley just east of the town of Rogers, Arkansas, though today its location is mostly under the waters of Beaver Lake. The resort consisted of several hotels, a lake, an indoor swimming pool, a golf course, tennis courts, bowling alleys, its own post office and bank, as well as a dedicated train line and an imported Italian gondola to conduct guests to the resort. In 1931 Monte Ne was the site of the only presidential convention ever held in the state.
The Frisco Bridge, previously known as the Memphis Bridge, is a cantilevered through truss bridge carrying a rail line across the Mississippi River between West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee.
The Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield Railway ("KCC&SR"), also known as the Leaky Roof Railway, was a consolidation of earlier railroads. As of 1917, it had a mainline running from Ash Grove, Missouri through Clinton, Missouri to Olathe, Kansas, almost 155 miles. It has since been abandoned.
Oklahoma City Union Depot is a building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that served as a "union station" from 1931 until 1967. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It now houses the offices of the Scissortail Park Foundation.
The Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad (CO&G), known informally as the "Choctaw Route," was an American railroad in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
The Arkansas and Oklahoma Railroad was a line running about 47 miles from Rogers, Arkansas to Grove, Oklahoma. It was formed in 1898, and sold its assets in 1901.
The Frisco Depot in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a railroad depot built in 1925. The last passenger trains left Frisco Depot in 1965, and starting in 2011, the depot's interior houses a Chipotle Mexican Grill. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 8, 1988.
The Bentonville Train Station is a former train station in Bentonville, Arkansas. Built in 1925 on Main Street, the train station served a short connector line that connected Bentonville to the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway (Frisco) to the east in Rogers, and the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad to the west in Gravette. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1988.
The Orange Belt Railway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad established in 1885 by Russian exile Peter Demens in Florida. It was one of the longest narrow gauge railroads in the United States at the time of its completion in 1888, with a mainline 152 miles (245 km) in length between Sanford and St. Petersburg. It carried citrus, vegetables, and passengers; and it interchanged with two standard gauge lines: the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway at Lake Monroe, and the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad at Lacoochee.
Beaver Water District (BWD) is a water district created in 1957 as a quasi-governmental agency to provide treated drinking water to the communities of Northwest Arkansas. The district's source is Beaver Lake, an impoundment of the White River created by Beaver Dam. The district wholesales treated potable water to Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale, who then re-sell the water to their residential/commercial customers and smaller nearby communities.
The Miami Mineral Belt Railroad (MMBR) served the Miami and Picher lead mining areas in that portion of the Tri-state mining district located in far northeastern Oklahoma. It was closely associated with the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco) for its entire history, and was eventually absorbed into the Frisco.
The Ozark and Cherokee Central Railway (O&CC) was formed under the name of the North Arkansas & Western Railway in 1899. At its maximum, it owned a standard gauge, single track line running between Fayetteville, Arkansas and Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Its assets were merged into the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway (Frisco) in 1907.
The Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad (“KCFS&M”) was a railway system which, at its maximum extent, operated across Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Oklahoma, a total of over 881 miles. Its predecessor company started in 1865, and another railroad assumed ownership in 1928.