Blanton, Oklahoma

Last updated

Blanton, Oklahoma
BlantonOklahoma.JPG
Blanton railroad stop in the mid-1990s
Garfield county.jpg
1909 map of Garfield County, Oklahoma with Blanton.
Coordinates: 36°25′38″N97°55′35″W / 36.42722°N 97.92639°W / 36.42722; -97.92639
Country United States
State Oklahoma
County Garfield
Elevation
[1]
1,240 ft (400 m)
Time zone UTC-6 (CST)
  Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code 580
GNIS feature ID1100216 [1]

Blanton is an unincorporated community [2] in Garfield County, Oklahoma, United States. It was a rail stop for two rail lines, [3] one of which used to transport grain until the mid-1990s. [4] It was named after Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad (DE&G) executive W. B. Blanton. [5]

Contents

History

As early as 1909, Blanton was a rail stop for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. [3]

A second rail line existed at Blanton, running to Kiowa, Kansas. This line, originally built for the DE&G in 1904 and 1905 [6] and later sold to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, was used to transport grain until the mid-1990s. [4] An entity called the K & E Railway Company (K&E) acquired the then-unused Blanton to Kiowa branch from the Santa Fe in 1996; but, finding no interest in area grain companies to reactivate the line rather than continuing truck shipments to Enid, the K&E applied for and was granted permission later in the year to abandon the line. [7]

Geography

Blanton is located at 36°25′38″N97°55′35″W / 36.42722°N 97.92639°W / 36.42722; -97.92639 , 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west-northwest of Enid. It is a part of the Lower Cimarron-Skeleton Watershed. [8]

Blanton is currently located on mile 548.2 of the main track of BNSF Railway's Texas Division. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garfield County, Oklahoma</span> County in Oklahoma, United States

Garfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 62,846. Enid is the county seat and largest city within Garfield County. The county is named after President James A. Garfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiowa, Kansas</span> City in Kiowa County, Kansas

Kiowa is a city in Barber County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 902. It is located 1 mile north of the Kansas / Oklahoma state border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boise City, Oklahoma</span> City in Oklahoma, United States

Boise City is a city in and the county seat of Cimarron County, in the Panhandle of Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,166 at the 2020 census, a decline of 7.9 percent from 1,266 in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copan, Oklahoma</span> Town in Oklahoma, United States

Copan is a town in Washington County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 733 at the 2010 census, a decline of 7.9 percent from the figure of 796 recorded in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waynoka, Oklahoma</span> City in Oklahoma, United States

Waynoka is a city in Woods County, Oklahoma, United States. It is located on U.S. Highway 281 and State Highway 14, seventy miles west of Enid. The population, which peaked at 2018 in 1950, stood at 927 according to the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BNSF Railway</span> American freight railroad

BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, 32,500 miles (52,300 km) of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farmrail Corporation</span>

Farmrail System, Inc. is an employee-owned holding company for two Class III common-carrier railroads comprising "Western Oklahoma’s Regional Railroad" based in Clinton, Oklahoma. Farmrail Corporation (reporting mark FMRC) has acted since 1981 as a lessee-operator for Oklahoma Department of Transportation, managing an 82-mile east-west former Rock Island line between Weatherford and Erick and an additional 89 miles of former Santa Fe track, Westhorn-Elmer, acquired by the State in 1992 from the ATSF Railway. Another wholly owned affiliate, Grainbelt Corporation (GNBC), was formed in 1987 to buy 176 contiguous north-south route-miles linking Enid and Frederick.

OmniTRAX, Inc. is a transportation and transportation infrastructure holding company based in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. It primarily owns or operates railroads, with a network of 25 regional and shortline railroads in 12 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. It is one of the largest privately owned railroad companies in the United States. The firm also invests in, develops, and operates ports, multimodal transportation terminals, and industrial parks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Station (Oklahoma City)</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K-8 (Kansas highway)</span>

K-8 is the name of two separate state highways in Kansas, United States. The southern highway is a 1.275-mile-long (2.052 km) road, linking Oklahoma State Highway 8 (SH-8) to the town of Kiowa. The northern highway is a 15.979-mile-long (25.716 km) road, linking U.S. Route 36 (US-36) near Athol to Nebraska Highway 10 (N-10) near the town of Franklin.

The Arkansas Valley and Western Railway (AV&W) was built as a short line railroad operating within the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1902 to link the city of Tulsa with the main transcontinental line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) at Avard. The line was built in sections, initially from AV&W Jct. to Steen (Enid) during 1902-03. In 1904 it was extended westward to the junction with AT&SF at Avard. On July 19, 1907, the railroad was purchased by the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, who operated it until November 21, 1980, when the Frisco was acquired by Burlington Northern Railroad.

The Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad (DE&G) was built as a short line railroad operating in Kansas, and Oklahoma. Incorporated in Oklahoma as the Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad Company, March 31, 1902, by the five Frantz Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Lines Railway</span>

Northern Lines Railway is a shortline railroad operating 17 miles (27 km) of track in and near St. Cloud in central Minnesota. The railroad was formed in 2004 to operate Burlington Northern Santa Fe trackage in and near the St. Cloud area and started operations in 2005. Interchange is made with BNSF in east St. Cloud or at the rail yard in central St. Cloud.

The Wichita Terminal Association is a switching and terminal railroad in northern Wichita, Kansas, jointly owned by the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. It handles mainly grain and some scrap steel, serving customers at the former Wichita Union Stock Yards. The tracks were first placed in service in September 1889 by the stockyard and packing companies, and in February 1910 operations were transferred to the new WTA, owned by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, Missouri Pacific Railway, and St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad. Through mergers, and the sale of the Rock Island's line to the Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad, the current split between BNSF and UP came about.

The V&S Railway is a shortline railroad that operates two disconnected lines in the U.S. state of Kansas. It is affiliated with A&K Railroad Materials. The company acquired its first line, a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line between Medicine Lodge and a BNSF Railway junction at Attica, from the Central Kansas Railway in 2000. In 2006 it expanded its operations by acquiring from the Hutchinson and Northern Railway a short segment of former interurban in eastern Hutchinson, where it interchanges with the BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, and Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. Other railroads under common control with the V&S are the out-of-service Kern Valley Railroad in Colorado, the Gloster Southern Railroad in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Grenada Railway and Natchez Railway in Mississippi, a portion of the former Rock Island from St. Louis to Union, Missouri operated by the Missouri Central and the Southern Manitoba Railway in Manitoba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Railroad Museum of Oklahoma</span>

The Railroad Museum of Oklahoma is a railroad museum located in the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway freight depot in Enid, Oklahoma. The museum began in 1977 and is a non-profit operated by the Enid chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. The freight depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arizona and California Railroad</span> Short line railroad in the Southwestern United States

The Arizona and California Railroad is a class III short line railroad that was a subdivision of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). The ARZC began operations on May 9, 1991, when David Parkinson of the ParkSierra RailGroup purchased the line from the Santa Fe Railway. ParkSierra Railgroup was purchased in January 2002 by shortline railroad holding company RailAmerica. The Genesee & Wyoming shortline railroad holding company purchased RailAmerica in December 2012. ARZC's main commodities are petroleum gas, steel, and lumber; the railroad hauls around 12,000 carloads per year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colorado Pacific Railroad</span> Short line railroad

The Colorado Pacific Railroad is a shortline railroad operating on 122 miles of former Missouri Pacific Railroad trackage in southeast Colorado. It interchanges with Union Pacific and BNSF at North Avondale Junction near Boone, and with the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad at Towner. It is sometimes referred to as the Towner Line or the Towner Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cane Belt Railroad</span>

The Cane Belt Railroad was chartered in the U.S. state of Texas in 1898. Formed by a group of businessmen from Eagle Lake, the short-line railroad was intended to bring the area's sugarcane to market. In 1902 a disagreement between two of the railroad's chief promoters proved deadly. By 1904 the line was in operation from Sealy to Matagorda on the Gulf of Mexico. That year the company's stock was bought by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the line continued operations under lease to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway starting in 1905. By the 1920s, the local sugarcane industry collapsed but the railroad was saved by the discovery of two nearby sulphur mines. In 1948, the Cane Belt was merged into the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. In the 1990s most of the original line was abandoned after the last sulphur mine closed. By 2013, only a small portion of the line south of Bay City was operating as part of the BNSF Railway.

The Eastern Oklahoma Railway was incorporated under the laws of Oklahoma Territory on July 24, 1899. The railroad constructed much of its own track. This included Guthrie junction to Cushing junction, 47.9 miles, in the 1900-1902 timeframe; Ripley to Esau Junction, 40.4 miles, also in the 1900-1902 timeframe; Newkirk to Pauls Valley, 182.5 miles, in the 1900-1904 timeframe; and, Davis to Sulphur, 9.3 miles, in 1906.

References

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Blanton, Oklahoma
  2. "Blanton, Oklahoma". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved August 4, 2008.
  3. 1 2 Historical Maps of Oklahoma, University of Alabama (accessed May 30, 2010).
  4. 1 2 The Surface Transportation Board: Docket Number: AB_480_0_X Archived 2016-08-08 at the Wayback Machine (accessed May 30, 2010).
  5. Cammalleri, Joseph A., Guthrie, Oklahoma: Always a Railroad Town, pp. 43-44
  6. George, Preston; Wood, Sylvan R. (January 1943). "The Railroads of Oklahoma". Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin . 60: 38. JSTOR   43516811.
  7. "Abandonment Exemption". Surface Transportation Board. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  8. U.S. EPA. "Lower Cimarron-Skeleton Watershed -- 11050002. Surf Your Watershed" . Retrieved August 4, 2008.
  9. BNSF Railway. "Texas Division Map, January 1, 2005" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 4, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2008.