Volume 13 , Issue 14

Railroads In Indian Territory (1870-1907)

On page 118, of the Historical Atlas of Oklahoma by Charles Robert Goins, Danney Goble, James H. Anderson John Wesley Morris, there is information concerning "Railroads, 1870-1907.

The Army Appropriation Act of March 3, 1853, funded a survey for a possible transcontinental railway route along the 35th parallel through Indian Territory. BUT . . . railroads did not enter Indian Territory until 1870.

Three railroads applied to the U.S. Congress to build through Indian Territory: the Leavenworth, Lawrence, and Fort Gibson (LL&FG); The Union Pacific's southern branch (which became the Missouri, Kansas and Texas MK&T, on May 23, 1870); and the Kansas and Neosho Valley (K&NV).

The Indian nations protested that according to the treaty of 1866, only one north-south railroad was to enter Indian Territory. Congress stipulated that the first railroad to reach Chetopa, Kansas, could build through Indian Territory.

The LL&FG fell out of the race early. The K&NV reached Baxter Springs, Kansas, the race appeared to be over. The railroad line ended opposite Quapaw lands, not Cherokee, which were not open for railroad construction. The K&NV turned toward Chetopa. As the K&NV and MK&T (or Katy) line drew closer, tensions mounted, culminating in a row between track-laying crews on May 28, 1870. The race was won by the Katy on June 6, 1870.

Robert S. Stevens, general manager of the Katy, drove a spike into the last tie in Kansas and the Elias C. Boudinot then drove the first spike in Indian Territory. The Katy rail crews pressed south through the Cherokee Nation into the Choctaw Nation, crossing the Red River into Texas on December 24, 1872.

Completing an east-west rail line through Oklahoma took longer. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (A&P) petitioned to construct a line following the 35th parallel, with the intent of connecting St. Louis and San Francisco. The A&P entered the Cherokee Nation at Seneca, Missouri, reaching Vinita (and the Katy) in Indian Territory on September 1, 1871.

The A&P assumed that land grants would be awarded, but none was forthcoming. All construction in Indian Territory was halted. Bankrupt, the A&P was acquired by the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway, known as the Frisco, in 1876. The Frisco reached Tulsa in 1885 and built westward to Oklahoma City.

The Choctaw Coal and Railway Company would become the first railroad to span the state from east to west. Organized in 1888, it constructed a route from Wister to McAlester and another from El Reno to Oklahoma City. The company was reorganized as the Choctaw, Oklahoma, and Gulf (CO&G) on October 3, 1894.

The CO&G line, established from McAlester to Oklahoma City, was the route along which Indian Territory coal was shipped to Fort Reno. In 1902, the CO&G completed its east-west line across Oklahoma. It became part of the Rock Island line in December 1, 1903.

In 1887, the Southern Kansas Railway (an affiliate of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe) began construction of a line from Arkansas City, Kansas, to Purcell, in Indian Territory. The rails crossed the Cherokee Outlet and Ponca and Oto lands before entering the Unassigned Lands.

The Cherokees protested, but it was ruled that the U.S. government held the power of eminent domain in the Cherokee Outlet. Through an agreement with the Chickasaw Nation, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe (GC&SF) was laying track from Galveston, Texas to Purcell.

It was on July 15, 1888, that the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific reached Pond Creek. The Rock Island continued laying track along the Chisholm Trail, reaching Minco on February 14, 1890. In 1892, construction resumed, and the railroad crossed the Red River before the year's end. The Santa Fe then laid tracks through northwestern Oklahoma from Kiowa, Kansas to Higgins, Texas.   |  View or Add Comments (1 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---