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ARKANSAS-BOSTON MOUNTAINS CHAPTER the Missouri & Louisiana Railroad Volume 31, No. 5 January 2018 Official Monthly Publication of the ARKANSAS-BOSTON MOUNTAINS CHAPTER NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Chapter No. 188 founded in 1987 2018 DIRECTORY OF OFFICERS President Bob Stark Vice President Al Kaeppel Secretary Malcolm Cleaveland Treasurer Tom Duggan Nominations Bill Merrifield National Director Ken Eddy Board Director Gary McCullah Editor Mike Sypult The Missouri & Louisiana Railroad - 1902-1914 M&L Mogul #114 builder photo at Baldwin Locomotive Works in August 1912. – John Dill collection Page 1 - THE ARKANSAS SCRAMBLER January 2018 The Missouri & Louisiana Railroad Arkansas well, a well-known Kansas City Banker. Stilwell was Branch already in the railroad business by this date and his By John Dill railroads all needed a reliable, relatively inexpensive supply of coal. Stilwell and his associates were then How do you write about a virtually unknown railroad in the process of assembling what would become the that does not fit well into any category that would nor- Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf Railroad, the predeces- mally be used to classify a railroad? The Missouri sor of the Kansas City Southern. Within only a few and Louisiana Railroad is the railroad in question. years, Central was heavily involved in the regional Have you ever heard of it? Few have. This article is coal business, mostly in Kansas and Missouri. Lum- as much an appeal to readers for information as a re- ber operations began near Texarkana in southern Ar- cital of the painfully limited knowledge of the author. kansas in January of 1894. A large amount of this Don’t get me wrong, the Missouri and Louisiana was lumber business soon became the production of rail- a very interesting, small but semi-important railroad in road ties and bridge timbers. On August 31, 1895 the the early years of the Twentieth Century. In some re- Arkansas & Choctaw Railway was organized in Ar- spects it was a hundred years ahead of its time. It is kansas with Richard Keith as president and Central as now common practice for a large company to operate virtually the sole stockholder. Initially a small lumber small railroads that are scattered over a state or the “tap line” it kept expanding until it became something entire country. In the late 1800’s when the predeces- else altogether as we will see in a moment. sor of this railroad got its start, that practice was, per- haps, far less common. The Missouri and Louisiana only operated (under this name) for about a decade or so in the early 1900’s. It was scattered over four states, Missouri, Louisiana, Indian Territory/Oklahoma and Arkansas. The divi- sion of the railroad in Arkansas/Oklahoma was known as the “Bonanza Branch” or “Bonanza District.” In Arkansas, it lay entirely within Sebastian County where it owned no track, hauled no passengers, and generally was not particularly well known to local res- idents. The Oklahoma portion of this “District” lay entirely within upper Le Flore County where the rail- road utilized Frisco track from the state line to Poteau. What this branch did, and did well, was haul coal with a passion. The story of the Missouri & Louisiana begins with an only slightly more well-known predecessor, the Ar- kansas & Choctaw Railway. Arkansas & Choctaw was a creation of the Central Coal & Coke Company of Kansas City, Missouri. The primary force behind Central, which would one day become the largest coal company it the southwestern Missouri and Louisiana ad from Railway Guide, United States, was its 1909, describing the railroads four “districts.” first president, a gen- tleman named Richard In late December of 1896 construction of the first Keith. Central was Central Coal & Coke Company mine (No.10) at Bo- organized on May 1, nanza, Arkansas began. Arrangements were made at 1893 with the encour- that time for the Arkansas & Choctaw to use trackage agement and financial rights over the Frisco Central Division to haul coal Richard H. Keith support of Arthur Stil- from Bonanza to Poteau, Indian Territory, for ship Page 2 - THE ARKANSAS SCRAMBLER January 2018 Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf coal cars are being unloaded on the Bonanza tracks near Mine No.12 in this un- dated photograph (looking west). Mine 10 can be faintly seen in the background. South Sebastian County His- torical Society photo. (Below) Town of Bonanza and Mine No.20 in 1903. - John Dill collection Page 3 - THE ARKANSAS SCRAMBLER January 2018 ment over the KCP&G or “PeeGee” as it was locally Texas Pacific and have contracts with other roads…” known. Although it may seem unusual that the Frisco This doesn’t even mention the substantial amount of would aid a competitor in this way, Central was rapid- Sebastian County coal that PeeGee was, itself, con- ly becoming a very important customer and coal sup- suming. An account in Transactions (Mining Engi- plier for them by this date, apparently with a “lot of neers) Vol. XLVIII 1898-99, discussing “Bonanza clout.” The wye and mine tracks at Bonanza belonged Mine,” stated “The coal is delivered to the Pittsburg to the KCP&G. They were leased to the Arkansas & and Gulf railway at Poteau, 20 miles south-west, by Choctaw – consideration, $1014.78 per year. This is the Arkansas and Choctaw railway which has running interesting since the first scheduled KCP&G train ser- power on the St. Louis and San Francisco railway, but vice into Fort Smith did not occur until June 7, 1898 – is owned by the coal company.” In 1900 Stilwell was roughly a year and a half later. This speaks volumes forced out as president of the KCP&G and the railroad about the importance of coal to early railroads. renamed the Kansas City Southern. The operation at Bonanza continued almost unchanged. An article in the Fort Smith New Record on December 14, 1897, quotes James Orr, general claims agent for On June 11, 1901 control over the Arkansas & Choc- the PeeGee as saying “From these (Bonanza) mines taw was passed to a new company called the Choctaw Sebastian County is supplying every ton of coal that is Construction Company which was organized by Cen- used on the Houston and East and the West Texas rail- tral Coal. This new company was controlled by Rich- road today. We are about to close a contract with the ard Keith, president of Central, George Madill, a di- Bonanza showing the locations of Mine No. 10 and Mine No.12 east of town from Plat Book of 1903. - John Dill collection Page 4 - THE ARKANSAS SCRAMBLER January 2018 June, 1906 payroll records for the Missouri and Louisiana at Bonanza, Arkansas. The voucher (below) contains the month’s pay sheets for all the railroad’s branches. - John Dill Collection Page 5 - THE ARKANSAS SCRAMBLER January 2018 1943 Army map of Sebastian County showing the Bonanza branch at the top of the map. - John Dill collection rector of the St Louis and San Francisco Railroad both not included in the Frisco deal. The number of Company (Frisco) and John Scullin. At this date the operating coal mines at Bonanza was now up to three. railroad extended, completed, from Ashdown, Arkan- sas to Arkinda, Arkansas (about 24 miles) with an- In 1903 a KCS publication, Mineral Resources Con- nounced construction planned or underway from Ash- tiguous to the line of the Kansas City Southern Ry., down to Stamps, Arkansas and Arkinda to Wichita stated “It is reported that the Central Coal and Coke Falls, Texas. On June 21, 1902, the stockholders of Company are contemplating opening mines near Poc- the Choctaw Construction Company announced the ola, I.T., and extending a branch road from Bonanza sale of the company to the Frisco. Newspaper reports to a connection with the Kansas City Southern Rail- put the selling price at approximately five million dol- way, a distance of ten to twelve miles.” Another KCS lars. Transfer was to take place on July 10. In late publication from approximately this same time said 1902 the Arkansas and Choctaw reported having that Bonanza was supplying all of the coal used by 102.23 miles of track, 40.25 of which were in Arkan- KCS on its “southern half” while mines along the rail- sas and the rest in Indian Territory. The Arkansas to- road in Kansas supplied the “northern half.” tal included “one mile of track at Bonanza and rights The largest fuel supplier for the Frisco at this time was over the Frisco to haul coal to the KCS at Poteau”, the Kansas and Texas Coal Company, widely reputed Page 6 - THE ARKANSAS SCRAMBLER January 2018 as a “front” organized to evade Kansas law. K&T A decade later the financial basis for the railroad (at Coal was an “albatross around the neck” for the least the logging portion) was badly damaged by the Frisco. A major UMW strike in Indian Territory and U.S. Supreme Court’s “tap line” decision so, in Sep- Sebastian County, Arkansas in 1899, blamed at least tember 1914, Central divided the Missouri & Louisi- in part on policies of K&T, had badly disrupted fuel ana up. This created the Bevier & Southern Railroad, supplies for a time and created a lot of adverse public- which Central would control until they went bankrupt ity. A respected book, The life of a Miner in Both in the early 1930’s, and the Neame, Carson, & South- Hemispheres, published by a mining engineer at ern Railroad in Louisiana, which lasted until the tim- roughly this time, described K&T’s Arkansas opera- ber was exhausted in 1929. Coal operations at Bonan- tions as “badly laid off, and poorly managed.” The za, Arkansas continued at this time as well, but it has Frisco couldn’t seem to control its fuel supply.
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