The “CASEY JONES” legend of railroad lore does not tie up with the turbulent history of the North Arkansas Line, but the two episodes do have a far-fetched parallel. If trouble is a weld of incident there is a connection between the two. The wreck of No. 382 of the Cannon Ball Express at Vaughn, Mississippi, on May 1, 1900 brought Casey into railroadana’s hall of fame, but the North Arkansas Railroad, now the Arkansas and Ozarks Line, experienced almost continued trouble during its first 60 years of history. The ballad makers have missed a good bet in ignoring the harrowed tale of this mechanical step-child of the central Ozarks. Time will probably weave the story into a legend, but that day has not yet arrived.

The Ozark region has had many ups and downs since the “Arkansaw Traveler” tuned his fiddle in the Pope county hills. Most of the frustrations, however, were of short duration. But the North Arkansas Railroad as a problem child of industry is written large in Ozark history. Two sections of the line have been reopened for service after a tense struggle for survival. The following historical outline will explain the difficulties the line has had:

1881. The Frisco Railroad, headed toward Oklahoma and Texas, reached Seligman, Missouri, this year. Eighteen miles to the southeast was the booming resort town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, which had been settled and named two years before. The traveling public tired of the slow stage coach service, and the local business men wanted a branch line from the Frisco to the Spa. St. Louis capital got busy and a twelve-mile line from Seligman to Beaver, Arkansas, on White River was built. It was named the Missouri and Arkansas Railroad.

1882. The road was extended six miles, from Beaver to Eureka Springs, under a different company which was organized by Powell Clayton, then a resident of Eureka Springs. The two short lines consolidated as the Eureka Springs Railway. A schedule of nine trains a day, most of them with pullman service, filled the resort town with health seekers.

1899. A company was organized to extend the road into the hill country to the south and east. It was financed by business men of Little Rock, St. Louis and New York.

1901. The line was completed to Harrison and named the St. Louis and North Arkansas Railroad.

1902. An extension was built from Harrison to Leslie giving the line a trackage of 120 miles.

1905. The road had financial difficulties which ended in a foreclosure, but the stockholders started a program of expansion, determined to keep the road and make it pay.

1909. The road was extended from Leslie to Helena on the south, and Seligman to Joplin on the north, making an interstate railroad 369 miles long.

1911. The Shops at Eureka Springs and Leslie were abandoned. Harrison put up a donation of $25,000 and the shops were located there.

1914. On August 5th there was a disastrous wreck at Tupton Ford between Joplin and Neosho when the M. & N. A. motor coach was struck by a Kansas City Southern passenger train. Forty-three people were killed and many injured. Payments made to families of the victims almost depleted the already low treasury.

1917-1919. The M. & N. A. was operated by the government during World War I.

1921. On February 1 wages of employees were reduced by 20 per cent. This was followed by a walkout which became a strike that lasted nearly two years, causing much ill feeling and hardship. On July 31, operations on the road were suspended.

1922. Service on the road was reopened under new management but they had serious difficulties in operating the line.

1927. Into the hands of the receiver again.

1935. The road was sold at auction and bought by the Kell family of Wichita Falls, Texas, for $350,000. The name was changed to the Missouri and Arkansas.

1941-42. Offices and shops at Harrison were destroyed by fire.

1945. A disastrous flood destroyed much track.

1946. On September 6 there was a walkout of employees which led to an application for the abandonment of the property.

1948. Movement was started to reorganize and resume operations.

1949. The line was purchased and reorganized. The section between Cotton Plant and Helena was revived as the Helena and Northwestern Railroad. It started operations early in the year. The trackage between Harrison, Arkansas and Seligman, Missouri became the Arkansas and Ozarks Railway. Two Diesel engines were purchased for this 65-mile line. Trains carry carload shipments only and the amount of business regulates the size and frequency of trains. The sections between Joplin and Seligman in Missouri and from Harrison to Cotton Plant have been junked.

That is a brief history of the “turbulent” North Arkansas Railroad. Few railroads in our history have taken the severe beatings this road has suffered. But the business men and farmers of the central Ozarks are determined that this section have a railroad. When abandonment was apparent in 1947-48, they arose like the embattled farmers of Concord and Lexington and began a fight that has saved the road. Now it is in a modified form with freight service only and over only a fraction of the original 369 miles of trackage, but residents of the state are well pleased with the service and the line appears to be doing well.

The best historical narrative on the North Arkansas Railway is included in Jesse Lewis Russell’s history of northwest Arkansas, Behind These Ozark Hills (published in 1947). Pages 116 to 156 are devoted to the “turbulent career” of this line.

In 1901 there was great excitement when the stretch of road from Eureka Springs to Harrison was completed. People at the Spa hired rigs to drive them forty-five miles to Harrison in order to ride the first train back. It was a time for celebration and on the streets and in the shops and hotel lobbies this verse was sung:

We now have the “Booger” back and it is a pleasure to hear him comin’ ’round the mountain, bell ringing, siren tooting, with car-loads of lumber, mineral ore and Eureka Springs water for the outside world.

About the time of the opening of the new Arkansas and Ozarks line, Clyde Newman of Harrison had an article in the Arkansas Gazette which gave most of the above data and some additional information.