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The St. Louis, El Reno and Western Railway was a small struggling railroad, started by local business interests in the Territorial Capital of Guthrie, Oklahoma. The railroad was built to move freight and passengers from eastern connections at Guthrie, West to the huge Rock Island Railroad hub and system cross roads at El Reno, Oklahoma. Working through the oil boom of the early-20th century with service to the South end of the large "Cashion Pool" and the boom towns of Piedmont, Richland and Navina.
The company was incorporated on January 5, 1903. [1] The line was merged into the Fort Smith and Western Railroad just a few years after it opened. [2]
History played a cruel trick on those who bet their fortunes on the Old West boomtown of Guthrie. A few years after statehood, the state capitol was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City, which led to a significant economic downturn in Guthrie, and all of the projected new railroads now building toward Oklahoma City and not Guthrie.
By the last days of the railroad following a flood in 1920, its bridge over the Canadian River had only 2 to 3 pilings per bent, instead of the required 8; the State Railroad Inspectors were aghast and quickly condemned the bridge. [3] Without access to its station in El Reno, service sputtered on intermittently until ending in 1923. Trains ran on the line again briefly in 1925, but only for a short time.[ citation needed ]
By late 1925, the railroad ceased operations for good, according to records at the Canadian County Historical society in El Reno.
There are however a few post death stories of interest. It seems that the railroad was not taken up immediately. Little maintenance push cars were left by the side, and the young men of the area soon found them. They would push the cars up the long grade to the Town Cemetery and then jump aboard for a wild ride back into town. Railroad inspectors were called out when it was learned that the railroad was moving carloads of wheat and farm products long after it was abandoned. When they arrived at the lines El Reno, depot, there was one old 4-4-0 locomotive missing the cab, and the railroad was reportedly scrapped in 1927.[ citation needed ]
El Reno is a city in and county seat of Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 16,989, marking a change of 1.55% from 16,729, recorded in the 2010 census. The city was begun shortly after the 1889 land rush and named for the nearby Fort Reno. It is located in Central Oklahoma, about 25 miles (40 km) west of downtown Oklahoma City.
Kingfisher is a city in and the county seat of Kingfisher County, Oklahoma,. The population was 4,903 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the former home and namesake of Kingfisher College. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Kingfisher is now primarily a bedroom community for people employed in Enid and Oklahoma City.
Weleetka is a town in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Okemah, the county seat. The name is a Creek word meaning "running water." The population was 806 at the time of the 2020 census.
Piedmont is a city primarily in Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States, though a small part of it is in Kingfisher County. It is a part of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area. The population was 5,720 at the 2010 census, a 56.7 percent increase from 3,650 in 2000. Piedmont is a home rule city served by a council–manager government.
Cashion is a town in Kingfisher and Logan counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The Logan County portion of Cashion is part of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 850 as of the 2020 United States census, up 6% from the 802 reported at the 2010 census.
A heritage railway or heritage railroad is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period in the history of rail transport.
The Chisholm Trail was a trail used in the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland from ranches in southern Texas, crossed the Red River into Indian Territory, and ended at Kansas rail stops. The trail encompassed a pathway established by Black Beaver in 1861, and a wagon road established by Jesse Chisholm around 1864. "The Chisholm Wagon Road went from Chisholm's trading post on the South Canadian (north of Fort Arbuckle to the Cimarron River crossing, to the Arkansas River at the future site of Wichita where Chisholm had another trading post and on north to Abilene," according to the Kraisingers. By 1869, the entire trail from Texas to Kansas became known as the Chisholm Trail.
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 Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land run into the Unassigned Lands of former Indian Territory, which had earlier been assigned to the Creek and Seminole peoples. The area that was opened to settlement included all or part of the Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties of the present-day US state of Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Railway Company (ORy) operated interurban lines to El Reno, Guthrie, and Norman, and several streetcar lines in Oklahoma City, and the surrounding area from 1904 to 1947.
The Fort Smith and Western Railway was a railroad that operated in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
The Western Association was the name of five different leagues formed in American minor league baseball during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad (OKT) was a railroad operating in its namesake states in the 1980s.
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 following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The Montana Central Railway was a railway company which operated in the American state of Montana from 1886 to 1907. It was constructed by James Jerome Hill's St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, and became part of the Great Northern Railway in 1889.
The El Reno Heritage Express is a heritage streetcar line in El Reno, Oklahoma. It opened in 2001 as the only operating streetcar in the state. A single J.G. Brill Strafford Car runs a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) excursion service from the Canadian County Historical Museum in the former El Reno Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Depot to a balloon loop downtown via a single-track line embedded in the road surface of Watts Street and Bickford Avenue.
The 2011 El Reno–Piedmont tornado was a long-tracked and deadly EF5 tornado that struck central Oklahoma on the evening of May 24, 2011. The tornado impacted areas near or within the communities of El Reno, Piedmont, and Guthrie, killing nine and injuring 181. After producing incredible damage in several locations along a path of more than 60 miles (97 km), the El Reno–Piedmont tornado was given a rating of EF5, the highest category on the Enhanced Fujita scale. It was the first tornado rated EF5 or F5 to strike Oklahoma since the 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado. A mobile radar found that the tornado possessed possible wind speeds of up to 295 mph (475 km/h).