Railroads of the black hills by tom bell

RAILROADS OF THE BLACK HILLS

THE ELKHORN CAME UP THE GULCH EAST OF DEADWOOD from Whitewood, Rapid City and points beyond, passing the D&D Smelter (left of photo) which was acquired by the Golden Reward Mining Company in 1899 and operated until 1903 when it was closed because of a labor strike; then past the Golden Reward chiorinaSmelter. The mill and smelter were tion plant (left center photo) which took the place of the abandoned both served by the Elkhorn and the Burlington, the Burlington & Missouri River rails are on the far side of the hill, the Elkhorn crossed the trestle to haul ore to the mills.

D&D

Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

ffiildPed

SUfEBlOfl f UBIISHIIJG

Fieldep

COM? AT)y-$£ATTl£

Number 64-21320

FIRST EDITION

Other Books by Mildred Fielder

WANDERING FOOT IN THE WEST, Bruce CARBONATE CAMP, in Volume XXVIII, Historical Collections,

Humphries,

Inc.

1955.

1956, South Dakota Report and

South Dakota Historical Society, Pierre,

Dakota,

LAWRENCE COUNTY FOR THE DAKOTA TERRITORY CENTENNIAL, Seaton PubHshing Company,

RAILROADS OF THE BLACK ment

of History

HILLS,

1960. in

Volume XXX, South Dakota Depart-

Report and Historical Collections, South Dakota Historical

Society, 1960.

RAILROADS OF THE BLACK Dakota Historical

HILLS,

specially

bound

Society, 1960.

IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FRAYN PRINTING COMrANY, SEATTLE

PRINTED

limited edition. South

Jjealcaii on Dedicated

to the railroad

sparked the writing of

men whose

this history,

who

with donations of railroad pictures,

interest

helped

maps and

information about the early Black Hills

Without

their

lines.

enthusiasm and whole hearted

cooperation the story could not have been told.

FO REWO

The ox teams were

the power that brought the first heavy mining machinery and the railroad equipment into the Black Hills in the early days of the mining excitement, but the little narrow gauge trains rolled the mines to prosperity. Every one of those old narrow rail beds is gone now. Though trucks and standard gauge rails have taken the job that the little hogs started, all through the northern Black Hills the woods wanderer can find the deep cuts through the hills, the broken wooden trestles, the slanted sides of road beds that once were important and are now nothing more than convenient

pathways for a hunter

You can who worked

to follow in deer season.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

them in one more place in the memories and deep affection of the railroad men them. Most of the narrow gauge men have seen their three score years and ten by this time. Those still living have known other railroads than the Black Hills narrow gauges, but get two of them together in any part of the world and they will remember the old days when the little engines pushed up the hills with their stacks blowing black and their crews working the trains ever>' inch of the way. In their voices you will detect a note of pride, in their eyes a shining remembrance of the days when the narrow gauge railroad was top of the heap. The settlement of the Black Hills of South Dakota began because of gold. The hills are a hundred mile square of piney mountains set in the middle of prairies surrounding it on all sides. They are of comparative recent settlement, the big gold boom being in 1876. Into this booming area of mining towns, ox teams (bull teams), horses and mules furnished the power for hauling equipment for some ten years. They snaked the huge boilers and furnaces for mine smelters and mills over the creek fords and across the dusty plains, and when they got to the hills they strained up the mountain trails and down the gulches through narrow canyons to get find

the stuff to the mines.

The Black Hills are on the far western edge of South Dakota with a small portion of them lapWyoming. All the great Dakota Territory including North and South Dakota, Montana and a large part of Idaho, had known white men roaming through its lands since Lewis and Clark ping into

FREIGHTING IN THE BLACK HILLS women

"bullwhackers"

with ox teams. Mrs. Canoteson, Rapid City, was one of the few

in the business.

Courtesy of Mrs. James O'Hara

went up the Missouri to the fur traders.

river in 1804.

earlier,

but the explorers opened the

way

The Black

was

was Indian country. The

California '49'er gold rush and the Idaho gold excitement of

1864 both bypassed the

government was trying

The

few were there

Military posts followed as a matter of course, and time brought settlers and

ranchers and farmers.

Black

Hills,

though

keep

Hills

still

an isolated island.

Indian country.

men had been

in the area for short periods.

Jedediah Smith and his party

went through the Black Hills in 1823, but did not stop. The Ezra Kind group of miners was murdered by Indians in 1834, but scratched their story on a stone first. A scientific survey headed by Dr. F. V. Hayden got as far as the edge of the hills in 1855, and he reported to the Dakota Historical Society in 1866 that he thought gold might be there. General George A. Custer led the expedition into the Black Hills in 1874 that confirmed the rumor of gold when one of his party, Horatio Nelson Ross, found gold colors in French Creek.

announcement of gold in the Black Hills, the Collins-Russell party in Sioux City and managed to spend a winter there before being ejected by soldiers for illegal entry. The damage was done. The world knew that there was the makings of another gold rush in the Black Hills, and no treaty with Indians nor government soldiers could stop them. With the

official

started for the hills

THERE'S A LITTLE OLD ENGINE

sitting in the Adams Museum in Deadwood, South Dakota, shiny polished black gleams like a high buttoned shoe. Painted on its gleaming side is "J. B. Haggin" as the name of the engine. Two candles (actual wax candles) are mounted in the headlight for illumination, surely to be used under only the most unexpected emergency. The engine plate reads: "Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, No. 4669, 1879." A card mounted on the engine informs us: "Loaned by the Homestake Mining Company, of Lead, South Dakota. This locomotive, the first in the Black Hills, was hauled from Bismarck, North Dakota by bull team in 1879. It was used continually until 1900 when it was replaced by a compressed air locomotive. Its weight is 5 tons, wheel gauge 22 inches, and traction sufficient to haul a train of 15 cars or 30 tons of gold ore each trip. It was brought into this building on a temporary track by its own power from compressed air stored in the boiler supplied from Homestake compressed air system, January 15, 1932. It was named 'J. B. Haggin' in honor of one of the original large stockholders." Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

until

its

THE

HAGGIN"

reached the frenzied mining area of "J. B. the Black Hills in 1879, hauled from Bismarck, Dakota Territory, by oxen, with Louis LaPlant the man responsible for freighting the little engine from Bismarck to Lead.

Photo by courtesy of Adams Memorial Hall

When the area was declared open to white They came from everywhere and built their houses and sluiced the streams. Custer, Hill City, and then booming Deadwood exploded into action. No gulch was safe from intrusion. No stream existed that was not placered in experimentation. Gold dust was the legal tender, gold nuggets the bonus for which everyone searched, gold fever was The anxious ones walked

men

in the

1876 the gold rush

into the hills in 1875.

really began.

blood.

The ox teams and mule teams were powerful enough slow.

Weekly,

daily, the

The Black

people of the

hills

to haul heavy equipment, but they were watched the news of railroads creeping nearer the hills

Times of the 1880's carried regular notices of the progress of rail& North Western reached as far as Fort Pierre on the Missouri river half a state distant. Talk went around hopefully of the possibility of a railroad coming from Nebraska or maybe North Dakota, but nothing happened

environs.

Hills Daily

road building, and marked the event with some fervor when the Chicago

other than talk.

time in reaching

The

railroads were building closer to the Black Hills area, but they took their

it.

mining towns existed in a honeycomb maze through the northern hills. The big belt was Deadwood-Lcad circuit with Central City a strong power between the two. Lead had the Homestake gold mine, a mammoth mining company that was growing bigger by the minute. Central City was beginning to lose its importance in the late '80's, but even then was notable for the many smaller mines clustered around its territory. It had begun on the placer mines along the creek beds down Deadwood Gulch, Blacktail Gulch, and the lesser gulches such as the offshoot Sawpit Little

the

Gulch, and though Central City boasted over three thousand people the big mines to keep tral City,

and was the

going.

Deadwood was down

in its

heyday,

did not have

from the other two towns. Lead and Cen-

logical place for a smelter servicing the

moved up Gold Run Gulch to Deadwood and its running creek ing

hill

many

close mines.

The

center of min-

Homestake, leaving the original placers through to be abandoned, but the biggest smelter stayed in Deadwood.

the big strike at

r THE

HAGGIN"

had an identical twin, this Homestake tramway locomotive at Terraville entrance to "J. B. the tunnel, Dick Pancoast, engineer; Fred Symons, brakeman, October 11, 1906. Neither could be called the first narrow gauge engine in the Black Hills; they were mine engines, 22 inches in gauge (which might be called a narrow-narrow gauge) and were used by the Homestake Mining Company in Lead for hauling ore cars between various mills and other surface installations.

Photo by

Arthur Jobe

As the Homestake holdings increased, the company emphasized its independence by cutting its own timber for underground mining, by building its own mills, and in 1881 the Homestake Mining Company began its own railroad named euphemistically the Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad. It never reached Fort Pierre (probably never intended to do so) but Black Hills This was a railroad built for one purpose

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

to assist the

certainly was.

mines (the Homestake in particular)

transporting ore and wood, and hauling heavy machinery from Piedmont on the edge of the

hills,

where it could connect to the standard gauge railway, the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley, to Lead high in the center of the northern Black Hills. Wagon roads were poor. The railroads were necessary, and the railroads came. The Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad was the first one built, followed by the Deadwood Central. The Burlington & Missouri River Railroad came into the hills from the south, taking over operation of the two narrow gauge tracks. It was met by the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley coming into Deadwood from the northeast. The Grand Island & Wyoming Central Railroad was part of the Burlington lines, and snaked a line over the high ridges of the hills. From the foothills of Rapid City the Rapid Canyon Line under a variety of names operated a perilous course. The Chicago & North Western took control of the Elkhorn, operating standard and narrow gauge lines in the area.

Everyone of these old railroads has its own story, its own calamaties and triumphs, and generspeaking its own men, though a railroader is a railroader wherever he lives and it was not unusual for a brakeman or some other crew member to switch from one line to another if by doing so he could better himself. There are the names Jim Bullard, Tom Burns, Roger O'Keefe, George Redfern, Boda and Hiram Wamsley, Ben Bell, Billy Baird, John Commiskey, Dell Fockler, C. L. Stall, Ed Gilman, Jim Beers, and many others.

ally

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

ON RAPID CANYON

The

rails

without so

knew every Hills

there.

The engines were sturdy it was

as a flipped smokestack, but

turn and trestle.

It is

Dark Canyon. Photo courtesy of James Sheriff

several miles above

little

the

hogs that tried any of the steep grades

men who

ran them and coaxed them and

our purpose to take the narrow gauge railroads of the Black

one by one and the standard gauges that operated with them,

help of the cherishes

were

much

LINE, above Lockhart's Quarry,

men who

them

operated them.

as part of

its

They

built the hills,

now

telling their stories

they are gone.

with the

The Black

Hills

memories.

note from the publisher:

Much

used in Railroads of the Black Hills, by Mildred Fielder, part of of History, Report and Historical Collections, 1960. and in a specially bound limited edition of the same work under its own title, both published by South Dakota State Historical Society, Pierre, S. Dakota, 1960. Will G. Robinson. Secretary of the Historical Department, has lent his enthusiasm and support to the writing of the railroad history from its beginning. He has recently announced plans to place historical markers in the Black Hills at key railroad points. of the text in this book was

first

Volume XXX. South Dakota Department

TTiis

Book

presents

many more photos and

additional information in locomotive statistics for the railroad fan.

THREE TRAINS AT LEAD,

DAKOTA. Deadwood

Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley ore train on the high trestle above the others.

level; a

Pioneer-Times,

May

22.

train

Central engine #497 pulling one car on the lowest on bridge, engine #208; and a Homestake Mining Company

1902:

"The special train bearing the delegates to the Odi Fellow's Grand bodies, which will convene in Lead tomorrow, arrived in Deadwood four hours late yesterday afternoon, but both sections were filled with as enthusiastic and as happy a set of pilgrims as has ever entered the Black Hills. The train came in two sections of five cars each, and every car was well filled, about 300 people being on the train. The delegates and their friends did not tarry for any great length of time in Deadwood. stopping for about 15 minutes, to allow of the train being cut up into an additional section, and then started on the climb to Lead, which city the first of the tourists reached at 5:20 in the afternoon, and were accorded a noisy and hearty reception.

"When

the train pulled into the depot at Deadwood there were committees from the Odd Fellow soand nearly all of the city's people at the depot to give them welcome. The Deadwood band was at the depot, and during the wait in this city they serenaded the visitors with some excellent music. The visitors were cheered as long as the cars stayed in the city, and must have thought that it was Deadwood that was to have entertained them. The trip up to Lead was over the most picturesque piece of railroad in the Black Hills, and must have been enjoyed by the visitors ..."

cieties of the city,

Photo by courtesy of Chicago

& North

Western Railway

Photo by courtesy of Mrs. Kenneth Stormo

THREE TRAINS ONE ABOVE EACH OTHER

in Lead. South Dakota, dated around 1900, shows the "J. B. Haggin" hauling a train of sixteen ore cars on the high trestle above two other railroad tracks, just ahead of it the compressed air engine that had been newly bought to take its place. In 1926 the Homestake Mining Company celebrated its Golden Jubilee with an elaborate celebration in which the "J. B. Haggin"' had its last moments of glory. The short but powerful little wood-burner was hitched to some mine cars polished for the occasion and became a concessionaire ride for the duration of the Jubilee, after which it retired to its spot on the floor of the Adams Museum cleanly dignified in repose, a visual memory of days when men were men and locomotive engines were what made them so.

DEAOWOOD CENTRAL RAIUMAY MM - 1980 CB a

0. RY.

on*tTiD

ArTEii

a FREMONT. ELKHORN MISSOURI VALLEY l«»0

I89Z

RAILWAY

— 1»2«

C a N.W. RY. oriRtTED urttn 1903

STANOMO GAuee

F E.

a y.v

RT.

dca0>oo0 ccntral 3*0 Rail Narrow ok Stamoaro UlNC BRANCHES IR Ru6r BASIR 2 SS HiLES. ON Portland Lmz I

Map

by courtesy of South Dakota State Historical Society

62 MILES.

TABLE OF CONTENTS PORTFOLIO OF GLASS PLATE PHOTOGRAPHS By Wm. H. Jackson

CHAPTER ONE THE BLACK HILLS

and

FORT PIERRE RAILROAD

Narrow Gauge Locomotives Dimensional

Statistics

for Black Hills

—

1881-1930

and Fort Pierre Railroad

Black Hills and Fort Pierre Locomotive Narrow Gauge 36"

CHAPTER TWO THE DEADWOOD CENTRAL RAILROAD — Narrow Gauge Locomotives Dimensional

Statistics

for the

Deadwood

1888-1930

Deadwood

Central Railroad

Central Locomotives,

Narrow Gauge 36"

CHAPTER THREE THE BURLINGTON LINES

—

THE BLACK HILLS

1888-1964

CHAPTER FOUR THE FREMONT, ELKHORN 1903-1928

and

MISSOURI VALLEY RAILROAD

— 1886-1903

117

— Chicago and North Western

Narrow Gauge Locomotives

for Fremont,

Elkhom, and Missouri Valley and 137

Chicago and North Western

—

Statistics Fremont, Elkhom, Chicago and North Western

Dimensional

and

Missouri

Valley

and 138

CHAPTER FIVE THE RAPID CANYON LINE

—

144

1890-1947

Rapid Canyon Line Standard Gauge Locomotives

Rapid Canyon Line Narrow Gauge Locomotives

166

CHAPTER

SIX

FINIS

168

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

170

BIBLIOGRAPHY

173

RAILROADS 0Â£ TKe Black

Hills

A PORTFOLIO of

GLASS PLATE PHOTOGRAPHS By The Famed Western Photographer

WM.

JACKSON

REPRODUCED THRU THE COURTESY OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF COLORADO.

THE GRAND ISLAND

ing Spearfish Canyon, going doned in 1934.

WYOMING CENTRAL down

the west slope

(Burlington) standard gauge locomotive #302 approachstation, a line built in 1893 and aban-

from the Crown Hill

Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

^;,^^

'/V

GRAND ISLAND

WYOMING CENTRAL

ENGINE #302 going over the Spearfish Falls near Savoy in 8c Spearfish Canyon, 1900. These falls no longer are functioning, the water having been diverted to flumes leading to the Homestake Mining Company's hydro-electric plant at Maurice, farther down the canyon. Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, hy courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

THE BURLINGTON ENGINE

(Grand Island & Wyoming Central) just visible as it rounds a curve in SpearCanyon, Black Hills. 1900. Now in 1964 all trace of the rails are gone, replaced by a wide, black topped highway down the full length of the canyon. The creek still runs below Maurice hydro-electric plant, and is known for its good trout fishing. Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado fish

^^^

»^:

i^"-

^ *',

•-

f-**'

.v^

"-^

^.^^..

vlC !5i?*/

-"]

'J^.^

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^tM

..V

'.'^k.

'^U ^^'^•:V

^^•,kr...:->-'-*^

ST^W?

:^^-/^"

rV^'

r.^^

THE BURLINGTON LOCOMOTIVE

it 346 along the southern edge of the Black Hills south, the rails struck almost directly into the heart of the hills, heading for Deadwood.

around 1900. From the

Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

ELKHORN NARROW GAUGE LOCOMOTIVE

209 and passenger car above Nevada Gulch just before it entered Terry. The right hand rails sloped down into Terry, from where it switched back to cross the trestle in center right. The Deadwood Central came up Nevada Gulch and under that trestle into Terry. The left rails of the Elkhorn, on which the locomotive is moving, continued up the hill to Portland (Trojan) and Crown Hill. Date 1900. The Grand Island & Wyoming Central (Burlington) bypassed Terry half a mile higher on the south side of Nevada Gulch. Photo from collection of William H. Jackson by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

THE GRAND ISLAND fish

WYOMING CENTRAL ENGINE

302 (Burlington

Missiouri River)

Spear-

Canyon, 1900, nearing the lower end of the canyon.

Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

209 with a passenger car in Dezdwood Gulch, photographed from the CuUing Mine on the south side of Deadwood Creek. This was just above the Cutting mine, half a mile beyond the Poorman Gulch road intersection with Deadwood Gulch. This stretch of rail was built primarily for haulmg ore from the upper mines, but passenger service was carried at specified times as well. Pholo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the Stale Historical Society of Colorado

ELKHORN ENGINE

209 with a passenger car in Deadwood Gulch, 1900. just above the Cutting Mine half beyond the Poorman Gulch road intersection with Deadwood Gulch. Photographed from the north side of Deadwood Creek. Elkhorn built this stretch of rail in 1891, and Chicago & North Western continued its use a mile

until 1920.

Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

p rr

liiiS

ELKHORN NARROW GAUGE LOCOMOTIVE

209 and passenger car above Nevada Gulch just before it entered Terry. The right-hand rails sloped down into Terry, from where it switched back to cross the trestle in center right picture. The Deadwood Central came up Nevada Gulch and under that trestle into Terry. The left rails of the Elkhorn, on which the locomotive is moving, continued up the hill to Portland (Trojan) and Crown Hill. Date 1900. The Grand Island & Wyoming Central (Burlington) bypassed Terry half a mile higher on the south side of Nevada Gulch. Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

ELKHORN LOCOMOTIVE #209 AT THE SUNSET AND MOGUL MINES in Nevada Gulch some miles beyond Terry, Ruby Basin area, 1900. The Mogul mine operated between 1893 and 1919, and was absorbed by the Bald Mountain Mining Company in 1939. Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

THE ELKHORN ENGINE #212

(opposite page) between Deadwood Gulch and Portland. 1900. coming from a steep cut to cross over a particularly large fill. few miles above Central City the Elkhorn rails branched to the left from Deadwood Gulch to climb toward the higher hills around Crown Hill.

Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

PANORAMIC VIEW OF DEADWOOD,

1909. From left, photographer on top of Brown Rocks sees the Elkhorn railroad coming from the east into Deadwood, passes the lower end of Deadwood and through the lower business section to reach its depot (later Chicago & North Western), left center of third picture. The North Western tracks then switched up the Deadwood Gulch to the right in fourth photo on its way to Central City and the higher hills. The Deadwood Central and the Burlington lines came down from the smoke filled gulch in upper right of the third photo, skirted the back edge of town to reach its depot at the base of the hill, left center of third photo. The Burlington roundhouse is in third photo at corner of sloping hill, and the freight office nearby. The North Western freight office and roundhouse were hidden from view by the Brown Rocks precipice behind which the photographer was standing. Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

FE&MV ENGINE #209 AT THE CROWN HILL STATION,

highest point on the hne and end of the line for the Elkhorn trains. The Burlington trains went down the western slope to Spearfish from Crown Hill, but the Hlkhorn concentrated on the mines and small towns on the eastern side of the Crown Hill station. Here a group of people are posing with the locomotive, standing on the sides of the engine and women grouped on the "cow-catcher" at the front of the locomotive. Though steam coming from the whistle indicates action on the noise level, the locomotive was standing still for the photograph. collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

Photo from

THE BURLINGTON

8c MISSOURI RIVER'S standard gauge Grand Island & Wyoming Central line coming Spearfish run. crossing over a trestle covering the narrow gauge Elichorn tracks, a short distance west of Trojan and Bald Mountain, 1900. The black line is a crack in the glass plate of William H. Jackson's

from

its

photography.

Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

THE ELKHORN PASSENGER TRAIN, ENGINE

^208, around 1902. descending around the side of the hill above Pluma on its way to Central City from Lead City. A ride on the train was considered a gala affair. enjoyed by excursionists as well as genuine travelers. Photo from collection of William H. Jackson, by courtesy of the State Historical Society of Colorado

Ckapter One

THE BLACK HILLS AND FORT PIERRE RAILROAD 1881-1901 In the year 1879 the Black Hills had a seething mass of miners in every gulch and down every creek. The Homestake Mining Company was already emerging as one of the big gold mines. The country was served by stagecoach lines for mail and passenger service, by oxen and mule teams for freight, and by newspapers who agitated madly for railroads that were always a dream or two distant

and never quite reaching the hills. Within the hills themselves toll roads connected various points and collected what they could get, to the frustration and ire of a good many people who admitted wryly that a man was entitled to some income from his property after all and toll roads were better than no roads at all. Considering the enormous amounts of machiner)' and heavy haulage within the hills, the primitive means of transportation answered surprisingly well.

The

editors of the Black Hills Daily

and Weekly Times were rabid enthusiasts for railroads

week go by without mention of some railroad that seemed to be glancing in the direction of the Black Hills. None came. The Times mentioned unidentified New York capitalists, eastern capitalists, big railroad men. all of whom were enthusiastically making plans to push this or that railroad from the outside to the Black Hills in Dakota Territor)'. The plans evaporated. The highly respected New York capitaUsts (anyone who had money to invest in mines or railroads was a capitalist in those years) would vanish until the next bubble hove into view. In the spring of 1881, with no other fanfare whatsoever, the Black Hills Daily Times carried the first notice of the first real railroad that it was to have with the following paid notice and never

let

"April 24, 1881: Notice is hereby given that the undersigned will receive bids until the evening of the 27th of April. A.D. 1881. to grade twelve and one-half miles of the Homestake and Custer railroad, or separate bids to grade from one to three miles of the same. The profiles and specifications for the first three miles of the road are subject to inspection to all persons proposing to bid at the office of the engineer of the Homestake mine in Lead City. The right is reserved to reject any and all bids. Dated April 22, 1881. Samuel McMaster."

Though the railroad in question was even then being called in committee Company, from that moment and for the rest of the year it was known as by newspaper and

comment long

man on

before

the street, at times building

its first

up a

locomotive appeared on the scene.

full

the Black Hills Railroad

the

Homestake Railroad

head of steam

tempers and

by mule team, arriving in Lead City November 29,

April 29, a contract for the entire grading

"of the Homestake railroad from Lead City to the heavy timber on Elk, or some other creek, a distance of 12 to 14 miles," was awarded to S. G. Burn, president of the Lead City miners' union. In spite of misgivings, editorial comments, arguments by the man on the street, the building of the rails progressed. The Homestake laid the first rails in a 22 inch gauge so they could use the "J. B. Haggin" to

1881.

So the Homestake Railroad, officially known as and in June of the next year, 1882, to be renamed the Black Hills and Fort the Black Hills Railroad

Company, was begun. 1887 the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley standard gauge railroad built from Rapid

Pierre Railroad

Whitewood in the foothills not too far from end of the Black Hills & Fort Pierre line, and in 1 890 the Black Hills & Fort Pierre extended its rails from Bucks to Piedmont to meet it, a distance of 21.57 miles. This was, in Black Hills & Fort Pierre thought, a considerable advance in its territory, and the Black Hills Daily or Weekly Times agreed, mentioning the progress toward Piedmont whenever it seemed expedient to do so. In Hne with progress. Black Hills & Fort Pierre men were sent to Nebraska to modernize their knowledge of railroading. Air brakes and "other new fangled appurtenances" were to be installed on the Piedmont-Lead City run as soon as the new line was ready for action. More locomotives were added as the years proCity to

haul the materials, the intention being to widen the

the

road as soon as they had proper rolling stock.

October

15, 1881,

first

hear of the loco-

motive that was to be used on the Black

Hills

Railroad, in a Times item:

locomotive

thirty ton engine left the

works on the 10th inst. and is expected to reach here by the first of November, then all be in readiness to ." over the road.

will

So the engine was on Superintendent

make

regular trips

McMaster

its

way.

issued

In anticipation, a

map

the

Homestake railroad which was commented upon by the Times editor in a grain of humor without rancor since it showed a tentative branch to Deadwood, unbuilt but considered.

gressed until the Black Hills

owned seven

said:

one to seven.

McMaster has had a map made of the Homestake Railroad which is now at Corson & Thomas' office. The "Superintendent

was

Day by

week by week, they waited for the By November 5, 1881, the locomotive

had reached

Pierre,

first

locomotive heralded into

later

and anticipation

renumbered the 494 by the Burlington &

November 1902. The BH&FP bought No.

2 in 1882 from Porter, No. 3 in 1883 from Baldwin, No. 4 from Porter in 1890, No. 5 from Baldwin in 1891, No. 6 from Baldwin in 1900, and No. 7 from Baldwin in 1901. The first three engines were hauled overland by mule or ox team, but by 1890 the Elkhorn was connected with the Black Hills & Fort Pierre at Piedmont and the others came all the way by railroad. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 were type 2-6-0, Nos. 2 and 4 being sold to Fitzhugh Company in December, 1904. Files in the Canadian Locomotive Company, Ltd., show that No. 2 was the steam locomotive built by H. K. Porter in June of 1882 for the Black Hills Railroad Company, Lead City, South Dakota, with Loco shop No. 493, CyHnder size 12x No. 18, wheel arrangement 2-6-0 in 36" gauge.

day,

from where

Fort Pierre finally

Missouri River Railroad in 1901, and dismantled in

locomotive.

That

numbered consecutively from

the Black Hills with such tension

course of this road as represented on the map would be a curiosity to railroad men accustomed to straight line prairie roads. It looks like an angle worm in excruciating torture. At one point in Whitewood gulch the bend is so sharp as to enable the brakeman on the rear car to receive a chew of tobacco from the engineer on the locomotive. Nearly four." teen miles of the road is now completed. .

engines,

was hauled west

HOMESTAKE WOOD AND COAL SHOOTS

at Terra-

June 27. 1905. At Lead, the road had three forks, one running on top of the hill around to the Homestake mills; another to Terraville, and the third to the DeSmet. in Deadwood gulch, all forming a junction on the divide at the head of Poorman. The purpose of locating the road so high above town is obvious wood and timbers will ville.

S.D..

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

slide

down

hill

much

easier than up.

Photo h\

Arthur Jobe.

FIRST ENGINE ON BH&FP RAILROAD. Very dimly on the name plate beneath the engineer, one can make out the words "George Hearst," the name of the engine. Black Hills Doily Times, December 8, 1881: "The Iron Horse in the Hills. The future historian of the Black Hills can record in his work when he comes to write it that on the 8th of December, 1881, the locomotive 'Geo. Hearst' pulled out on the Homestake railroad, being the first steam horse to turn a wheel on a railroad in the Black Hills. George Beemer was the engineer and Sam Smith the fireman. Superintendent McMaster, the engineers of the road, several gentlemen connected with the Homestake mills and a delegation of the press gang took a ride out on the line for about two miles. The engine worked excellently. As soon as the road is thoroughly inspected and the rolling stock in proper condition Superintendent McMaster will extend an invitation for an excursion over the line. Due notice will be

given of the great event."

Photo by courtesy of the Homestake Mining Company 3 was a 2-8-0 type, the biggest engine in terms of wheel arrangement that the Black Hills & Fort Pierre ever owned. They used it until April 1924, when it

was

dismantled,

but

well

repaid

its

cost

break-down of types in 1892, two passenger cars, four baggage-mail, twelve box cars, fifty-eight platform and thirty-three coal cars. By 1897 to 1902 they had two passenger cars, two baggage-mail cars, sixteen box cars, sixtynine platforms and thirty coal cars, showing without doubt that the passenger service remained the least their freight cars in a

showing

$6,708.90.

Engines 5, 6, and 7 were newer in appearance and more powerful in performance, and with number 3 are the four of which complete size statistics have been found. Each was type 2-6-0, though 6 and 7 were heavier engines than No. 5. Number 5 was used until 1911, when it was scrapped, and 6 and 7 were in action the longest of any of the Black Hills & Fort Pierre engines, working the roads until November 1930, when they were dismantled by CB&O at Eola, Illinois. Numbers 6 and 7 cost $7,595 each, a nominal sum when one considers the usefulness of these old narrow gauge hogs in their

important in point of haulage as long as the railroad ran under

In 1884 the

BH&FP

railroad

had three passen-

1891 they had only one passenger car

60 miscellaneous

freight cars.

By 1887

in use

They began

original charter. its

passenger service

was the only thing that counted, according to the memories of a lot of Black Hills people living today. That was the time of the big fire in 1886. The holocaust began near Custer Peak in a brush pile, was fanned by the wind to proportions from two to four miles wide and raced for fifteen miles before it could be stopped. It blackened Elk Creek Canyon, burnt 23 bridges on the line, warped the rails, and played general havoc with the countryside. G. R. "Dick" Johnson, Roubaix, was a boy then, but he remembers how the train picked up women and children along the valley to take them to safety, how the sec-

years of service.

ger cars and 25 miscellaneous freight cars.

its

There was one day when

and

Usting

LOAD OF WOOD

FIRST

on Black Hills and Fort Pierre Railroad, Dec. 1881. From the first day the wheels of excitement from one end to the other. The road was steep some places making a four per cent rise or fall, and the road was twisty in curves making a radius of up to thirty-six degrees. It ran through cuts in the hills that filled with snow, making runs impossible or at least impractical from February to May. It scooted over trestles that cut across spring freshets. The rails were icy in winter, needing sand thrown by hand on the ice to keep the trains moving. The engines were hot little wood burning hogs in the summer or winter, spring or fall, billowing smoke and cinders in veritable clouds of Vesuvian eruptions. From first to last the railroad meant adventure to those who ran it, literally and perilously. rolled,

From tion

was

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

full

crews rode the hand cars for

worth,

how

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

collection of E. F. Irwin

all

the narrow gauge engine and

Royce

worked that job. Royce had been a Union Pacific in Nebraska, then in 1892 became joint agent for the Eikhorn and BH&FP railroads at Piedmont. Later he worked at various stations on the narrow gauge, being transferred to Lead in 1899 as Assistant General Agent of the Homestake line until the CB&O took over management. Joseph Feeney is another who is remembered as a BH&FP man, working in the pas-

they were its

packed

cars of refugees went over the burning bridges with a

hope and

They

a prayer

and made

across.

fixed the rails and the bridges, and the

Black Hills & Fort Pierre kept going.

John Sawyer received the timber taking charge of the

flat

Woodville,

cars loaded with lumber.

Dick Johnson says he helped brake those lumber Tackabury was telegraph

cars occasionally. George

operator for the

BH&FP

also

telegrapher for the

senger and

one time, and W. E.

freight

departments between

1887 to

1901.

THE NORTH LEAD LINE of the

BH&FP

shown

in the

lower right corner, passing the Hidden Fortune mine near Lead. The line was completed to Bucks, about 15 miles total, in 1882, and a branch line of .9 of a mile called the North Line near Lead in the latter

months of 1881. Photo by O'Harra, 1901, courtesy of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

One

of the longest in point of service on the Bell,

who

died

the age of 98.

Ben

Bell

Black Hills & Fort Pierre was Ben in

Piedmont

1956

began working for the Homestake railroad in 1885, first as a passenger conductor between Lead and Piedmont, later a conductor on the log train between

Nemo

and Carr

Wye when

passengers were an un-

necessary commodity on the

line.

He remembered

the day when the Black Hills & Fort Pierre was held up by a gang of desperadoes for the payroll being carried to the lumber camps along the way. It was the custom of the Homestake Mining Company in 1888 to send the payroll down the hne to various logging camps by its privately owned railroad. Alex McKenzie was generally the one in charge of escorting the money to the men. On the 12th of each month he filled an old valise with around $12,000, chmbed on board the narrow gauge

tucked a sawed off shotgun under one arm and set off to pay the boys. Since this was no secret, it had been a subject of temptation to occasional desperadoes for some time. Twice they tried to waylay the train and twice were foiled. The first time fizzled because the gang got their instructions mixed and their artillery was not on hand at the right moment. The second time the train schedule was an hour late because of a Homestake machinists and mechanics picnic, which threw the schedule of the train and the robbers out of kilter, and they were unable even to scare McKenzie. The third time was the big day. Reports of the affair named the members of the gang with fictitious names, nicknames and real names, but a sifting of the news indicates that they were John Telford, John Wilson, Jack or Doc Doherty (full name Napoleon Bonaparte Doherty) and Alfred C. Nickerson (aUas train,

ENGINE

536 (BH&FP engine Piedmont, between 1909-12. Art Eckern, fireman; Harry Penniger, conductor; and E. A. Johnston, engineer. A Black Hills Daily Times notice of October 22, 1884, calls our attention to a new

No. 3)

locomotive:

"A new

thirty ton

locomo-

Homestake railroad was fired up and tested last Saturday by Spargo and Dell Fockler. It worked without fault and will soon go of the

tive

into service at the end of the track. The other locomotives

heretofore considered 'some punkins' appear like pigmies in comparison."'

This was the No. 3 locomoDell Fockler's daughter Millie (Mrs. Grant Hamilton) tive,

remembers. wheels than

had two more

the

first

engines,

and those two wheels made the

much

length

that

whole

appearance

longer, that

the

much

impressive.

Photo by courtesy of Art Eckern

^ Sfe

-Ti^^

THE BLACK HILLS

FORT PIERRE

engine No.

Lead City

station.

Passengers

were

when

caiiieJ

necessary, and occasionally the railroad threw business to the wind and had itself a picnic.

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

Spud Murphy). The four removed the fish plates or spUces from the rails in Reno Gulch, made an ambush and sat back to wait for action. They figured the train would come rolling and would be wrecked. McKenzie was laid up with rheumatism that morning, so Wm. A. Remer, Homestake paymaster, had to take the

The

money down

train

impossible to get the exact details because of differ-

ences of opinion from those

moving slowly when of being wrecked,

Commiskey

hit the

spread

rails.

was

Ben

Instead

ville

John B. Commiskey, engineer, had Reese Morgan, fireman, Charles H. Crist, conductor, and Charles

Richard Blackstone,

superintendent of the company, and H. P. Anderson flat car,

quite a day.

Wood-

Hart (who

train

the

over with it. He found himself sitting on a big rock some distance below the wreck, with

back-bone driven up at least a foot. He badly stove up, but can walk with the aid of a cane." his is

Nothing stopped the early railroaders.

was back on

Ben

Bell

the job as soon as he could manage.

Mrs. Dell Fockler fed the train crew and rented

unsuccessful. exciting

was

No. 1 was coming from BrownsLake yesterday morning, two flat cars loaded with wood jumped the track and turned bottom side up. Ben Bell, conductor of the train, was on one of the cars and went ville to

crew had been on the last flat car. At the moment the train stopped the gang jumped out of their ambush, yelling and shooting. Remer pulled the engine whistle for help, and guns started barking. Wilson was shot in the eye and left side. The others broke and ran, but were caught later and sentenced to the penitentiary. The payroll was delivered to the men as it was intended, and the third try for a great train robbery was again

was

log train waiting at

for the pay train, he told

"As

and the

section

was on a

it in an article in the Railroad Magazine some years later). He "was ordered to proceed to the scene and bring the pay car back into Lead." Only a couple of weeks later, on October 27, 1888, Ben Bell had more excitement that topped the frosting on his cake. The Times reported:

him.

were seated on some freight on a

Bell

wrote of

the tampered rails beneath

Lavier, brakeman, with him.

didn't

it.

gave names and facts pre-

else after the shooting started.

still

merely came to a stop when felt

The add much

took part in

ceding the robbery, but was as indecisive as anyone

the line himself.

Reno Gulch,

who

Times quoted Remer himself, which light to the matter.

stopped to drop a section crew before

taking the long run into

engineer

where even the Black Hills Daily Times reported several versions of the affair, admitting that it was

enough,

though

the

rooms

point

them near Brownsville.

Lavier was mentioned in Hart's

article as

con-

ductor at a later time. Hart talked to Leonard Ponath,

he says, and Ponath described the

difficulties

encountered in blizzards and snow on the tracks.

Ponath was an engineer

in the early days

on the

BH&FP.

LaVier, the conductor, suggested cutting off the engine and making a run for it. The valiant Uttle girl did her best. She went charging

through until the weight of the snow broke her pilot down, turning it under the pony trucks and derailing them. There they were, in snow to the cab windows, and no help available until next day. The crew was a game bunch, however, and took turns shoveling snow into the tank and keeping the fire

when

twenty-four hours steaming."

THAT

need snow to find Sometimes the grade alone was enough. In getting the lumber train from Woodville to Lead, the engine stalled on the four per cent grade below Woodville, Hart says, so train did not necessarily in

moving.

"Brakeman

"Once a blizzard caught Ponath's train at Nemo," says Mr. Hart, "with no plow available. They started out but stalled in a huge drift before they had gone far. Charlie

going, so that

The

difficulty

a rescue train arrived

later, the

engine was

still

Tom Gorman

clubbed the

The engine eased down against us, making a little slack. Time and time again they tried to jerk our train up the hill, but when the water commenced to get low they gave up and cut off the five head cars, ran on up to Woodville for water, and then came back for the rest of the train." brake on the coach.

Oldtimers in the

hills

say that there was another

made on the Black Hills & was known only among employees

time that a holdup was

Fort Pierre that

and never released to the newspapers. There was a curve near the old Rex mine, they say, in which

managed to hijack some gold The Telford who was one of the gang in the robbers

robbery was also said to be the leader of

this

EXCURSION OF JOY

bullion.

the

FIRST was followed by others, one of which remains to our knowledge as the Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad Excursion of Omaha Board of Trade in 1885. Men were packed into the open cars much closer than cattle would have been, all of them standing for the full length of the train ride, men posed on the tender of the engine for the taking of the photograph, holding to the headlight to get a higher view, leaning out of the doors of the one passenger car at the end of the train. lumber was hauled on the days that were given to excursionists there just wasn't room for any.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

first

holdup.

the year

1901, the Fremont, Elkhorn, and

Missouri Valley Railroad had brought their standard line from Chadron, Nebraska, extending narrow gauges into the hills as far as Deadwood and skirting along the foothills from Rapid City to Whitewood and Belle Fourche. The Deadwood Central had been running for 13 years, partly a passenger service between Lead and Deadwood,

gauge

partly servicing mines otherwise

Black Hills

& Quincy had

Chicago, Burlington ton

untouched by the

From Nebraska,

Fort Pierre.

built

Missouri River line into the

hills

too, the

Burling-

its

from the

Grand Island & Wyoming Central branch line from Englewood to Spearfish, and from Hill City to Keystone, from Edgemont to Deadwood. The Black Hills & Fort Pierre was still active though the area was being served by railroads from several directions. The Homestake Mining Company needed the access to the timber, quarries, and south, operating the

LEAD CITY,

1901. Shows North Lead Line of the BH&FP upper right, a spur of the South line in lower center. The South Line near Lead of L61 miles was laid in 1892, and in 1898 the rails were pushed from Bucks to Este for 13.88 more miles of woodland travel. For the most part the line carried wood, timber for burning in the Homestake power furnaces, timber for slopes, mine drifts and tunnels, timber for building, but with the connection to the Elkhorn the BH&FP could also be used to carry heavy machinery from the big railroad to the inland sawmills and towns. at

other necessities which

Hills

Photo by Cross, by permission of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

in July

Nevertheless,

1901 for the Black

Fort Pierre to be put under the agency of

& Quincy

the Chicago Burlington

pany

furnished.

arrangements were made

Railroad

Com-

for operating purposes, without formal written

lease or operating agreement, the line to be operated

under the management of the Burlington & Missouri River line. The Grand Island & Wyoming Central

branch of the Burlington

The

men

railroad

robbers and got

all

out with the

apparently shot

but one man,

who

with the missing brick.

disappeared

"They" found the man

the

of rocks along the way, at the bottom of

which was the gold brick. or not

later,

was extended further the men found

railroad

mound

Englewood, and

When

but he was dying and he had hidden the brick.

Certainly

true.

It's

it is

good

story whether

typical of the times,

which relished adventure to the hilt and would have liked such a pat ending to its troubles. 1901-1904,

Under Burlington & Missouri River Management

About

Black Hills the historian must choose between prethe

all

railroads

they appear, year by

the

first

change made by the Burlington

all

Fort Pierre locomotives and reconditioning

equipment.

No.

the old

"George Hearst"

abandonment.

engine heralded into the Black Hills with such fervor

has seemed to us that a more complete picture

and caustic remarks by the editor of the Black Hills Times, was renumbered 494, used for almost a year and a half then scrapped in November 1902 as having served its time. No. 2 became 493; No. 3, 492; No. 4, 491; No. 5, 490; No. 6, 489; and No. 7, 488. Numbers 6 and 7 (B&MR numbers 489 and 488)

the time of

rails as close to

Missouri River was the renumbering of the Black

Hills

year, or by following the story of each railroad from

gauge

of 2.79 miles for a further convencience.

In a history of narrow gauge railroads in the

senting

Missouri River was

Lead as seemed a wise move at this time to lay a third rail on the Black Hills & Fort Pierre from the South Lead line junction for its full length of 1.61 miles and to add a third rail to the .9 of a mile in the North Lead Line as well, thus making it possible to send heavy machinery and coal directly into Lead on standard gauge cars which could be hauled in a mixed train of standard and narrow gauge cars or individually as seemed necessary. The main line narrow gauge was extended in 1902 from the terminus at Piedmont to Stage Barn, a distance rolling over standard

its first

through

achieved

throughout

appearance

its

come and go

lifetime,

staying

with

one

railroad

though other railroads may

in its vicinity

follow each story

until its

during that period.

will

As we

mention the other

briefly with the intention to discuss

them

lines

were the newest and

detail in their turn.

best,

both of them being Bald-

^Vi-

BLACK HILLS

FORT

RAILROAD

PIERRE timetable dated February 5. &i at Giant Bluff, Elk Canyon. 1891, shows the Black Hills & Fort Pierre railroad leaving Piedmont at 7:15 a.m., going through Miller's. Doyle. Jones, Runkel's, Mowatt's, Elk Creek, Anthony's, Portuguese Siding, Perry, Brownsville, Galena Junction, Woodville, Horseshoe Grove, Whitewood Crossing, Whitetail Crossing, and arriving in Lead City at 9:55 a.m. In Lead, the train laid over until 2:45 p.m. for lunch, loading and unloading, and started down the hill at that time to reverse its itinerary and arrive back in Piedmont by 5:15 p.m. In 1891 the Black Hills & Fort Pierre connected with the Deadwood Central in Lead City, which railroad we will discuss a little later, and at Piedmont with the Elkhorn. An 1898 timetable shows the train leaving Piedmont at 9:26 a.m., adding such stops as the Quarry between Doyle's and Jones, Crystal Cave between Jones and Runkel's, Englewood instead of Horseshoe Grove, Whitetail Summit instead of Whitewood Crossing, and arriving in Lead at 11:56 a.m. to leave again at 4:53 p.m. and get back into Piedmont by 7:18 p.m. Photo by Grabill, 1890, Deadwood and Lead City, S.D. Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company.

DEADWOOD CENTRAL RAILROAD

and depot. Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad and depot, with engine news item of some note is dated June 7, 1890: "Homestake Extension to Piedmont. A magnificent 25 ton locomotive arrived at Piedmont last Thursday and was set up on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday track laying began, and on yesterday sufficient was down to test the new engine. It was found perfect ... the extension will be completed by the first

No.

of August."

The only locomotive

definitely established as purchased by the Black Hills & Fort Pierre during 1890 was the complete dimensional statistics for which are unavailable, so we can only assume that this 'magnificent 25 ton hog' was the No. 4, Porter make. Copy of photo by J. E. Meddaugh, 1892, published in "Souvenir of Lead, Black Hills Metropolis."

No.

wins built

1900 and 1901

respectively, type 2-6-0

loaded ore cars for the great smelters

Deadwood, gold ore and

and powerful little hogs with tractive efforts of and 16,150 #. 15,300 As far as the rolling equipment is concerned, the B&MR acquired 8 box cars, 2 way cars, 2 gondolas, 64 flat cars, 1 tank car, 2 refer., 1 passenger holding 32 seats and combine holding 20 seats. Jim Bullard, Eldon, Mo., was a young enthusiastic railroader on the Black Hills narrow gauges in 1902. His memories of those days are vivid, and his

"We had tion in 1902,

minutes

collection of railroad material has been invaluable in

it.

a great Fourth of July celebrahad a light snow for about ten

Lead

that

afternoon,

the celebration

and

Deadwood

we in

time to go out on the Ruby Basin ore train at 7:00 a.m. on the 5th. Calamity Jane was still in circulation and going strong, the four horse stage from Spearfish hit town with a flourish and whirled up to the North Western Railroad station with real old western zip. Mac, the man who ran a saddle and harness shop, was mayor, and had everything under control. Good old Deadwood! What a town it was!

compiling their history.

wound up

lots of

says:

was a brakcman on the narrow gauge wound up the mountains out of Deadwood each morning with empty ore cars and came hustling back each evening with "I

ore train that

"The biggest thrill I ever had in my 49 years and three months on the shining steel

the

Rock

In remembering the early

Island hnes.

days of the Black Hills narrow gauges, he added:

a^CK Hills

"This narrow gauge railroading was apart from any other kind. It was hard, cruel, dangerous. Many died, were crippled for life or just could not take it and walked off the job. Bucking snow was one of the cold chilly jobs that we went through in the hills each winter. We would try one engine with no luck, then get another. Sometimes we would have three of those little narrow gauge hogs tied together, back off and take a run at the drift and then not break through. "Runaways were the thing the narrow gauge man dreaded. Once they got a good start they were gone and you went with them. The only way to prevent them was to club 'em tight with the good old brakie's friend, the brake club, and when you heard that long sharp blast from the hogger you knew it was time to tie 'em down just a little harder or you were gone."

&FtF^EKREl

A MAP

REPRODUCED in J. E. Meddaugh's Souvenir oj Lead, Black Hills Metropolis, 1892 is indicative of the line in 1892, showing the BH&FP running from Lead to Piedmont.

was on the morning of July 12, 1902, going down the mountain from Woodville on the old Black Hills & Fort Pierre narrow gauge big, railroad. I was the only brakeman good natured John Cooksey was the engineer, Hy Wamsley was fireman, and the conductor was a long, tall, freckled faced fellow from .

Box Butte County, Tom

1904-1930,

After Briggs. tipping the mountain I commenced setting hand brakes, but could not get much action out of those old brakes on the flat cars. did not have very many cars with air. When big John Cooksey the engineer commenced whistling for brakes I knew we were really .

Once again

when

Missouri River designations

Perry (later

finished.

Photo by O'Harra, 1901, courtesy of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

mountain climbers that wound the Black

Hills are long since scrapped, but those of us will

and mill

Elk Creek ambles down its canyon as it always Perry was a mining camp which changed its name to Roubaix, and Roubaix still exists with a few families living in homes long unsupported by its abandoned mines. Brownsville has had several names, the more recent of them being Esther's Place and Anderson's Place. A filling station marks the spot today. Galena Junction meant the spot at which a road left the railroad for Galena down Bear Butte creek, and a few years later some rails were laid down that creek by the Deadwood Central Railroad, only to be abandoned some years later when their usefulness was

way up and down through them

hoist

Many names

anymore.

the rails.

with

Fort Pierre

did.

of a tree without a bruise. We had a paymaster for the Homestake Company in the caboose and an old lady passenger with five dozen eggs going to Nemo to visit her son. The paymaster had a Winchester and $5,000 in silver and gold to pay off employees around Nemo and other stations along the line. They had a late pay day. It took five long days and night to get that 488 back on

who worked

of Black Hills & Fort Pierre stops are old timers, some of them completely forgotten and others still a point of identification on the map. Runkel's was a sawmill, and there is still a landmark in the Black Hills known as Runkel Plot though no railroad passes it

Roubaix).

"When that little mountain hog, the 488, went around the curve she went down the dump, cars piled up behind her and yours truly went up in the air, came down and landed right between two big boulders where there was a nice bed of soft dirt and sand that had been whipped in there by the wind. Some landing! Cooksey and Hy Wamsley, the fireman, went clear of the engine as she turned over, and they both landed in the top

little

the Burlington

THE UNCLE SAM MINE,

running away.

"The

the old Black Hills

locomotives were to change their numbers, this time

their

Under Chicago, Burlington 8C Quincy

never forget

them."

Jim BuUard was back at Eldon, Missouri, on 17, 1904, where he landed a job braking with the St. Louis, Kansas City & Colorado Railroad. For the next forty-five years he stayed with

March

THE CREW ON THE BLACK HILLS RAILROAD

FORT PIERRE

time of the payroll train holdup of Oct. 11. 1888. One value came out of that holdup. There was such a dither about the robbery when things quieted down again that the men involved on the railroad end of the deal were brought together for a newspaper picture, for once dressed in their best and posed against a background of elegance. To this happenstance we must be thankful for the old picture of Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad men, including W. W. Sweeney, section boss; Reese Morgan, fireman; John B. Commiskey, engineer; Richard Blackstone, railroad superintendent; Ben Bell, conductor; Tillis Hirbour, Charles Lavier, brakeman; Charles Crist, conductor; and Dell Fockler, engineer. (Identification top row, left to right; and front row, left to right.) at the

Photo by courtesy of Reese Fockler

were erased to be replaced by Chicago, Burlington & Quincy numbers, and the line henceforth to be operated under the Quincy management directly.

The

original one-spot,

the 494,

was gone by

re-numbered by the the time the

got

its

B&MR hands

on them, but the rest were given a third number as follows: No. 2, 530; 3, 536; 4, 531; 5, 532; 6, 534; and 7, 533. Almost immediately the Quincy management sold No.'s 2 and 4 (530 and 531) to Fitzhugh Company, leaving only four of the original Black Hills & Fort Pierre narrow gauge locomotives

THE DEPOT AT BENCHMARK, signboard over the doorway. Used as a section house at the time of abandonment, 1930.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

Still

operating.

Old No.

2 and 4 were the

first

be renumbered on September 1904, the others being used and renumbered

No.

January and March, 1905.

CBQ

No. 532, gave fairly good service until 1911, when it was scrapped and dismantled. No. 3, CBQ 536 lasted until April 1924 before it was considered ready for the junk heap, and the two newest, 5,

numbers 6 and 7, CBQ 534 and 533, were used until the final abandonment of the line when they were rolled down to Eola, Illinois and dismantled. Until 1907 the line ran without particular incident.

Merritt timber landing, about four and a half

miles southwest of the end of the

rails at Este,

an excellent spot for added timber

facilities,

offered

and a

4.36 mile extension was built during 1907 to reach Merritt.

Of more

general influence was the cloud-

burst and flood that

roads

and bridges

washed out

all

railroads,

wagon

over the Black Hills

spring.

CORDWOOD

was brought into Lead on the Black Hills & Fort Pierre North Lead line, and unloaded on these wood chutes. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

that

A CLOSEUP VIEW

of the chute from the north Lead line of the Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad to the

wood

B&M

Homestake Mining Lead, South Dakota, around 1900. The train dumped the cordwood and coal from the end of the upper platforms and the wood or coal slid down to the furnaces and boiler rooms which kept the steam power in supply. The hoist.

Company,

railroad, the chute and the hoist are all gone now.

B&M

Photo by courtesy of

Rex Tario

The Homestake Mining Company men looked over the

rails of the

Black Hills

Fort Pierre and

found that the most extensive flooding was through the

line

from Bucks

Canyon. short one work and Piedmont

THE

Calcite

down Elk Creek

The Stagebarn Canyon extension was and could be

rebuilt with a

minimum

a of

from Bucks to be re-vamped, the roadbed

rebuilt, the rails re-laid.

of the road

was

this

time the southern end

Este from which point

branched

southwesterly to Merritt, but from Este to Stagebarn

Canyon and

directly

into

Piedmont was a much

shorter route than from Bucks to Piedmont through Calcite.

The

decision

was made

abandon the

time, but the transportation

Bucks-Calcite route and to build the

would have

nect Este and Piedmont through Stagebarn Canyon.

rails

to con-

BRIDGE FANTAIL. Coal chute built for narrow gauge engines built into bridge. Black Hills & Fort Pierre line over top. Deadwood Central underneath, both operated by Burlington. Until about 1895 all of the engines were wood burners, spouting ashes with their smoke in a grand disregard for safety. Around that year the coal fields on the western edge of the Black Hills near Newcastle and Gillette. Wyoming, were being worked with subsequent cheap coal rates in the Black Hills. For the next seventeen years the narrow gauge hogs used coal in preference to wood. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

THE YEAR OF

1902 Jim Bullard came to town. In lilce a world-shaking statement, but Jim Bullard worked on "the shining steel" for 49 years and three months, and is still the most avid railroad fan in itself that

doesn't sound

the country.

To Jim Builard's unflagging' interest in narrow gauge railroad history, particularly that of the Black Hills where he got the "biggest thrill in 49 years" when the Black Hills & Fort Pierre engine 488 ran away with him, we owe much of the material gathered for the compilation of this history. Because of his outstanding contribution to railroad history we would like to introduce him to you as the man whom we may quote through the rest of this book. Photo by courtesy of Jim Bullard

Company issued a Corporate History of the & Fort Pierre Railroad Company, which

road

Black Hills

listed construction

beginning in the

fall

of 1881, but

not operating until July 10, 1882.

The little

old narrow gauge pike might have lasted 3

longer than

did except that two serious acci-

Whether or not on the decision to

dents occurred in the late 1920's. these had any definite influence

abandon the Black roaders of the

Hills

Fort Pierre

problemati-

but they were two of extreme shock to

cal,

The

rail-

hills.

was a runaway engine and train that two deaths; and the second, four months was a flareup from the converted oil burner first

resulted in

In 1910 final steps were taken to legally abandon the Bucks-Calcite line (15.57 miles) and the Homestake company agreed to pay train and track crews if the Burlington would build a line from Este to Stagebarn

The

Fort Pierre Railroad company.

two columns of type

Brown wreck.

fur-

They had a

Enough remained keep them

Calcite

still

the

Calcite

shape for use.

below

Piedmont

other

broader plain

why

areas.

The

valley

flattens

made by

the Black Hills

Lead,

line as

Englewood, Woodvillc, Galena Junction, Avalon, Roubaix, Bucks, Apex, Bench Mark, Novak, Spruce and Nemo, no regular service, operated as Whitctail,

business

remember

required. that

they

Railroad

made

men

the

that

period

times a week.

& Quincy

the very air into the lungs.

rec-

ing this article were still engaged in the work of extricating the bodies of the men, tho it is known beyond doubt that both arc dead. "Returning with a load of flagging, tics and lime, to Lead from Nemo, the engine of the Burlington railroad freight train about 7

run perhaps three

In 1921 the Chicago, Burlington

icy,

7 o'clock last night. "A switch engine from Englewood and a crew of Burlington and Homestake employees and other volunteers at the time of writ-

listed the stops

Fort Pierre

were

when breathed

and flagging at an early hour this morning, following one of the most tragic and disastrous wrecks which has ever occurred on a railroad in the Black Hills, occurring about

around Calcite, perhaps explaining

1918 a Burlington timetable

temperature plummeting to 25

rails

flat cars

the waters of the flood were not so destructive. In

Baschky-

had been

ognition the bodies of Lou Baskey and Frank Brown, both of Deadwood, engineer and fireman on the Burlington railroad freight train crew between here and Nemo were still encased in a mass of wreckage of the engine,

men and a few houses. Evan Evans was manager of the quarry and lime kiln for some years, and he had a good sized house there. The lime was necessary for use in the smelters in Deador

the night

"Crushed and burned almost beyond

Calcite boasted a lime kiln, a couple

of barracks for

wood

Decem-

was It

was an impossible night for a train wreck, and yet perhaps because of that very fact. it happened We quote in part from the Pioneer-Times:

being of some importance, the branch

retained.

The

zero.

sharp as crystal

total

The quarry

to tell the story of the

The day and

bitterly cold, with the

to be the last

Black Hills

ber 31, 1927, appeared with shocked headlines and

end of 57.32 miles.

rails to

was

of rails laid by or for the

in the

way was

right of

nished by the mining company.

mileage

The Deadwood Daily Pioneer-Times

(10.84 miles) to re-establish a con-

nection with Piedmont.

stretch

later,

that killed the engineer.

Rail-

o'clock last evening

left

the tracks near the

^^-.

n^*2^ .^^^Jtr i*di

*'â&#x20AC;˘

W>^

LEAD FROM

ROCKS

FLAG (present site of Yates Hoistj, 1903, showing South Lead line, BH&FP. One ot after the Burthe earliest timetables still available for the Black Hills & Fort Pierre is that issued by the lington took the BH&FP under its control, dated November 24, 1901. In that year the narrow gauge was leaving Piedmont at 9:30 a.m., climbing through Gardners, Millers, Doyles, Jones, Runkell, Mowatt, Holloway, Anthonys, Bucks, Roubaix, Avalon, Galena Junction, Woodville, Englewood, Reno Quarry, Whitetail Summit, to finally reach Lead by 1:00 p.m. At 3:30 that afternoon the crew was supposed to have the train unloaded and reloaded for its trip back to Piedmont, and left at that time to reach Piedmont by 6:45 p.m. and rest for the night. Daily except Sunday, another Black Hills & Fort Pierre train load left Lead City at 6:00 a.m. in the light of the dawn, went as far as Bucks by 7:52 a.m., then instead of going to Piedmont turned to the right to go through Apex, Bench Mark, Spruce, Nemo to Este by 8:50 a.m., where it rested for 40 minutes then left Este at 9:30 a.m. to return to Bucks by 11:10 a.m. Presumably that train, No. 33, continued to Lead, but the timetable does not show it going any farther than Bucks. Photo by Locke, courtesy of J. Arthur Jobe

JIM BULLARD was a freight train conductor for years, and made railroad history by converting his Caboose Number 18058 into a "Get the Business" car back in 1926. He organized his train crew into a group of freight solicitors. A portable typewriter was tied down to a pine board in the caboose, paper and other supplies were obtained from the Eldon station agent, and members of the crew went to work soliciting freight from the towns and farmers along the Kansas City-St. Louis division. The idea was so novel that Caboose 18058 was shown at the Missouri State Fair in 1928, the Century of Progress, Chicago in 1934; the International Petroleum Exposition, Tulsa, in 1936; and the Texas Centennial in 1936. On January 8, 1949. the Caboose and Jim BuUard were retired together, the Caboose going to the St. Louis Museum of Transport as an object of railroad historical

interest.

Photo by courtesy of Jim Bullard

B&M

ENGINE 532 PIEDMONT, S. DAKOTA. 1910. Elmer Johnston, engineer; Bob Leeper, fireman. A B&M time table dated November 29. 1903. for the Black Hills & Fort Pierre railroad shows the train leaving Lead at 7:00 a.m. in the morning for Piedmont on Tuesdays. Thursdays and Saturdays, where it would arrive at 10:00 a.m.. lay over for an hour and get back to Lead by 5:00 o'clock that afternoon. On alternate days the run would go to Este and back to Lead in approximately the same time. Photo by courtesy of Jim Bullard base of White Tail Summit, about three miles from Lead on the automobile road to Ice Box canyon, and it is believed instantly killed Engineer Lou Basky and Fireman Frank Brown, both residents of Deadwood, whose bodies are encased in the cab of the engine, which overturned into the ditch alongside the roadbed, and was covered with four flatcars, a

The engine was 537

topping the

of the

Pierre.

The Burlington

that time

Deadwood

Black

controlled

both

and used either equipment where

Shaw,

veteran

engineer of

site

of old

stated

is believed that Engineer Shaw, as the topped the hill, shut off the power, and that oil continued to be fed into the combus-

chamber in larger quantities than could be immediately consumed, with the result that there was an accumulation of gas in the combustion chamber, which exploded, sending the flames and blazing oil into the tion

cab.

." .

The flames

ignited Shaw's clothing and he was Fireman O'Neill was in the cab with Shaw, but O'Neill jumped in time to avoid being more than "scorched." The cab was destroyed, and Shaw died a few days later.

badly burned.

The

was

last

time table listing the Black Hills

Pierre Railroad

(Dad)

with engine 534 near the

"It

needed.

James

for

train

Fort

lines

hill

The Deadwood Pioneer Times

Central

Hills

man

Brownsville on the other side of Roubaix.

running a train on the

old

and a man who had many friends. He had worked the rails for years, records existing that show him as an engineer as early as 1889. The accident occurred April 4, 1928. Dad Shaw was

believed that the brakes on the train became frozen in the long pull up the hill the other side of where the engine and cars left the tracks and that when they were applied on the sharp decline the other side of Lead they refused to take hold, permitting the train to run wild down the hill, at the base of which is one of the sharpest and most dangerous turns on the entire Burlington system. "Miraculous was the escape of the rest of the freight crew. Herb Webb, conductor, and George Stcen, brakeman, also both of Deadwood, who leaped to safety before the engine ." and cars left the track.

line,

killed in the

his death,

man He was an

Fort Pierre was the

four months later.

a railroader, seventy-four years old at the time of

boxcar and their loads. "It

Black Hills oil flare

ber 15,

the

1929.

a timetable of the the

many

little

& Fort

B&M, Decem-

names

which

had stopped, most were listed then as Only Nemo, Englewood and Lead any kind of a station at all, and they were open had during only specified hours of the day or night. No time was given for any regular trips, eastward or westward. It was obviously hanging onto existence by a thread that was nearly broken. A letter dated August 28, 1956 from the Public Utilities Commission, signed by S. F. Norman, Secretary, gives the date of final abandonment:

Woodville, Galena Jet., Avalon, Roubaix, Apex, Reausaw, Bench Mark, Novak, Spruce, Nemo, Este, Murphy, Repass, Carr Y, Goians, Stagebarn, Piedmont, Gardners and

the hoggers

having no office.

"The narrow gauge railroad line extending from Englewood to Calcite, a distance of 41.86 miles and known as the Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad, was abandoned, effective as of January 13, 1930, by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission in its Finance Docket No. 7910. The South Dakota Railroad Commission, in its order of January 6, 1930 (Docket 5878), authorized the abandonment of all stations on the Hne, vis:

The

application for abandonment by the Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad Company and the Chicago,

Calcite.

was

filed jointly

Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, on October 25, 1929."

The last train running from Piedmont to Lead was on March 20, 1930, with Conductor J. C. Lang in charge. Frank Carter was engineer; WilUam Elrod, fireman; and Tom Gorman was brakeman. The rails were ripped from the road beginning at the Calcite end, and most of the job was done by May.

The

'30's

were the days of the depression which With the abandonment of the

covered America. railroad, kiln

the

Homestake

and quarry

also

at Calcite,

abandoned the lime

donating the shacks and

EXCURSION TRAIN FROM NEMO TO LEAD.

Engine 532 at Bucks Landing. Wellman, engineer; H. Lavier, Lavier, conductor, Oct. 5, 1907. Our last timetable showing the Black Hills & Fort Pierre going through Bucks-Calcite is the October 31, 1909 issue. Until the flood had wrecked the tracks, the Black Hills & Fort Pierre had been scheduled to leave Lead for Piedmont Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 7:00 a.m., to scoot down the hills to Piedmont by 10:25, pick up its load and leave again by 10:30 to climb leisurely back through the pine trees and aspen groves to Lead by 5:00 p.m. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the little narrow gauge left Lead at 7:00 a.m. same as always, but went to Bucks and then to the Nemo lumber camp, arriving there at 9:40, hitching on its carloads of wood, leaving Nemo at 10:00 a.m. to get back to Lead by 3:00 p.m. The train did not run on

fireman;

Bob Leeper, and Charles

B&M

Sundays.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

other buildings at that spot to the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Nemo

still

exists, for

many

years a

lumber camp from which the logs were hauled by trucks, now in 1964 mainly a dude ranch. Roubaix is the home of a few families. Piedmont is a farming center

Deadwood

on U.S.

interstate

highway 90. Lead and

are thriving towns in the northern Black

on the paychecks of the HomeMining Company though Deadwood's giant smelter has been gone for many years. Gold keeps Hills, still existing

stake

MAP OF BLACK

HILLS & FORT PIERRE. When

all

was

ready for use again after rebuilding the line in 1910, the map of the Black Hills & Fort Pierre furnished in a Corporate History on that railroad by the CB&Q railroad files dated 1921 shows the general outline of the railroad.

Courtesy of Chicago, Burlington

l^ldfk Dillf

anO foxx

l^irrtr

Quincy Railroad

OailroaD

Lead

alive,

tourists

throng to

interesting frontier history

Deadwood

for

its

and pageantry.

The short stretch from Englewood to Lead has become standard gauge under the Burlington management, and the rails still connect those points so freight can be brought into Lead for the Homestake Mining Company and Lead merchants. Englewood has a few homes and a water tank. Reno Spur is a railroad siding.

For road

Fantail has a few scattered homes.

the rest, the Black Hills

CONDUCTOR OTTO Pattalochi, fourth

The

Fort Pierre Rail-

gone.

regular crew

man on

REIMER,

may

be Eckern. then

unidentified. Engine 533, the narrow gauge out of

BH&FP. Lead

1915 is remembered to be engineer Jim Wibray, fireman A. Calhoun, conductor Otto Reimer, and brakeman J. C. Lang.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

BUck Hnii •nd Foit Pierrt Railroad Company: Narrow r>i>K* — 3 '••*MILCACX

rauM MAIN INK

ooMnxns

Sr»T

Near Bocka Piedmont

iiueka

21.67 2.79 13.WI 10.M4

SUK* Bam CiU Suf* Bam

|'ic<]niont

Kurk*

K>U

• •

l>urinK 1882. Uctobrr 18. 1R90 l>urin« 1»02.

•

October Auiruat

18, 1»I0.

Durtnir

1!>07.

1k»8

MiJiNriira

MtrriU

.Nrar l.«a<i (north liM) Naar I.«m1 •outh llMI

1.61

I>urin|t |MH1.

Durinff

rvtmllt In IMl |o ptrmit gmxiK* equipment

I>iy2.

>»a r » U aw of b"'h Un-lard and narrow •Total mileage a* oririnally eon mettd, 57.S2 miU-. ToUl mileaire ai of date of valuation, M.7I mll*« Thr oririnal north Una frvni Bueka lo CalelU, 15.67 mU«*, ,N.>Ti

The two latUf branch linM

«« a»i»n>ki'.<-l

durinc I9I0.

ROUNDHOUSE AT LEAD to oil, see cinder pit. 1909.

runs were from the Deadwood and Lead yards, each having a regular crew. Ralph Coats and Spaulding were on the Lead switch engine. They handled the Lead business from Englewood to Lead and switched the Lead yard."

BOILER EXPLOSION AT HIGHLAND HOIST, Lead, May 10, 190L Wood on flat cars of the BH&FP

S.D..

Railroad, North Lead photo.

line,

are

shown

Photo by Sydney by courtesy of

the top

at J.

before engines were converted "In those days the only regular

of the

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

Staple,

Arthur Jobe

NARROW GAUGE LOCOMOTIVES FOR THE BLACK

HILLS & FORT PIERRE

RAILROAD Original

No. 1

2 3

4 5

6 7

Cost

B&MR

When New

CB&Q

No.

Date

494 493 $6,708.90 492 491 490 489 $7,595 488 $7,595

9-01 9-01

1902 9-01

1901

1902 1902

No.

530 536 531 532 534 533

Date

Builder

Date

Shop No.

Baldwin

1881

...

9-05

Porter

1-05

Baldwin

9-05

Porter

3-05

Baldwin

3-05

Baldwin

9-04

Baldwin

1882 1883 1890 1891 1900 1901

493 6691 1145 11769 17612 18888

Type 2-6-0

Class

2-6-0 2-8-0 2-6-0

2-6-0

2-6-0 2-6-0

8-22-D152 8-24-D99 8-24-D119

Gauge

36" 36" 36" 36" 36" 36" 36"

Disposition and date, other notes: 1,

BMR

494. Dismantled 11-02. Named "George Hearst," name plate under window of cab. George Hearst was president of the railroad company. The Black Hills Daily Times says it was "Pittsburgh make." H. K. Porter Company was in Pittsburgh, and Baldwin Locomotive in Philadelphia, suggesting a possibility of an error in the listing of the builder. No. 1 was brought by mule team to Deadwood November 29, 1881, from Pierre, the western terminal of the C&NW Railroad in South Dakota then. BMR 493, CBQ 530. Sold to Fitzhugh Company, December 1904. Error apparent, in that if No. 2 was sold to Fitzhugh at that time it must have been acquired by CBQ in September 1904 rather than September 1905, at the same time No. 7 was renumbered. BMR 492, CBQ 536. Dismantled 4-1924. Built by Baldwin for the London, South Park & Leadville Railroad. Engine 536 was leased to Homestake Company 6-30-17, though technically under the operation of the Burlington. It is said that the Q crew would trade engines with the Homestake crew at Nemo just before the engine was due for inspection. Story goes that 492 was shipped up the river and hauled with bull teams from Yankton, South Dakota to Lead City, South Dakota, but we have not been able to verify this in either newspapers or old records. First test run given No. 3 on Oct. 22, 1884, Dell Fockler engineer. BMR 491, CBQ 531. Sold to Fitzhugh Company December 1904. Error apparent in that if it were sold at that time it must have been acquired by CBQ in 1904 rather than 1905. No. 4 was bought in 1890, arrived in Tilford on the Elkhorn railroad June 7, 1890. BMR 490, CBQ 532. Dismantled 1911. Discrepancies in building date records for No. 5. Chicago, Burlington Quincy Operating Department thinks it was built 1883. Railway and Locomotive Historical Society says it was built 1893. Baldwin files list it as having been built 1891. BMR 489, CBQ 534, Dismantled by CB&Q at Eola. Illinois, November 1930. No. 534 would take eight loads from Nemo to Galena Junction where it was necessary to double the hill to Woodville. Engine 534 cab burned off 1000 feet west of Avalon. April 4, 1928. Engineer James Shaw killed. Engine sent to Havelock, Nebraska, shops for new cab. Used until 1930 when it was scrapped. BMR 488, CBQ 533. Dismantled by CB&Q at Eola, Illinois, November 1930. Engine 533 would take eight loads from Nemo to Galena Junction where it was necessary to double the hill to Woodville. Ran away and

turned

over

Woodville

July

12,

1902.

EXCURSION TRAIN

Oct. 5. 1907, back to Nemo from Lead after a big day at Lead. Wellman, engineer; H. Lavier, fireman; Leeper, Charlie Lavier,

conductor.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

DIMENSIONAL STATISTICS BLACK HILLS & FORT PIERRE LOCOMOTIVES, NARROW GAUGE No. 2

No.

B&MR

No.

B&MR 493

494

CBQ 12x18

No. 4

B&MR 492 CBQ

530

CBQ

536

15x20

in.

Lgth. Firebox

in.

Width Firebox Diam. Boiler Steam Press.

26 48 140

in.

Cylinders

in.

B&MR

491 531

No. 6 489

No. 5

B&MR 490 CBQ

38 42

in.

140

lbs.

B&MR CBQ

532

14x18 34

in.

in. in.

36'

48 160

lbs.

CBQ

534

15x20 72 23 3^

in.

No. 7

B&MR 488

in.

533

15x20 72 233^

48 160

in.

lbs.

in. in. in.

in.

lbs.

Firebox Heat.

Surface Size of Flues

No. of Flues Length Flues

Diam. Drivers Wt. on Drivers Wt. on Truck Total Weight of Engine

sq.

2 152

60,000

lbs

sq.

ft.

in.

62,700

lbs.

lbs

50,000

lbs.

in.

sq.

ft.

in.

200 9

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

42,100 9,400

lbs.

59,000 12,000

40 59,000

lbs.

12,000

lbs.

51,500

lbs.

71,000

lbs.

71,000

lbs.

lbs

ft.

in.

200 9

ft.

54,700 8,000

sq.

109 8

ft.

in.

lbs.

Total Weight Eng., Tend.

102,500

lbs

87,200

lbs.

98,800

lbs.

98,800

lbs.

Tractive Effort

14,100

lbs

11,050

lbs.

16,150

lbs.

15,300

lbs.

Tender, Water Cap., Gals.

1500

2000

1500

V/2

Coal Cap.,

Tons Lgth. out to out Inc.

Tender

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

ENGINEER REDFERN AT FANTAIL, around 1915. with engine No. 536. As nearly as can be established now, the narrow gauge hogs underwent another change in 1912 when the National Forest Service forbade the running of any engines except oil burners through the Forest Reserves. All of the locomotives in operation were converted to oil at that time. They had begun as wood-burning hogs, then coal consumers, and finally were modernized with oil, a circumstance that was to cost at least one man his life a few years later. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

NEMO LUMBER YARD roundhouse.

engine

and

Last

engine in this was November 1929. In-1927 M. L. Hart, now agent for the CB&Q at Gillette, Wyoming, got a job on the narHills & Fort running between Nemo and Lead. He found the depot to be a refrigerator car divided into three compartments. He met Ben Bell, conductor on the

row gauge Black Pierre

log

at that time. Van the agent. Jack Knowle>>

train

Horn

conducting, and brakeman Tom Gorman. Hart rode back to Deadwood on the BH&FP log train, taking eight hours and 40 minutes to make the short trip.

Photo hy courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

ENGINE

537 following wreck Whitetail Gulch December 31. 1927. The Baschky-Brown wreck, engine turned upside down in the snow.

Photo hy courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

AN OLD PHOTO DATED

1911 shows engine 538 with fireman Leeper standing beside it, the train loading timber landing. Part of its interest lies in the fact that the photo shows how the coupler could be raised to permit handling standard gauge equipment. The hose on the front of the engine was to permit the crew to get water out of creeks in an emergency. These early engines had to be self-sustaining, their crews had to be independent men who could handle any emergency of the railroad. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe at Merritt

1913. A short review of the situation in 1912 appears in a publication called the "Booster which Robert V. Tackabury describes part of the freight yards in Lead. He says: "In one part of the freight yards in Lead is located a large derrick for the unloading of large and unwieldy articles. A large sand bin is located on the side of a hill in another part of the yards. This sand bin has a capacity of about seven cars of sand each averaging about 60,000 pounds. The top of the bin is roofed over and is just above the level of the tracks on the bank above and is connected to them with a bridge on which are two small tracks for two steel dump cars." Photo by courtesy of Jim Jelbert

LEAD,

Nuggett"

DAKOTA,

AFTER THE BASCHKYBROWN WRECK, Dec. 31, 1927, the crew men lifted galold 537 out of the ditch and sent her to the repair shops for a patching job. lant

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

\ CB&Q ENGINE

AFTER BEING REBUILT

following Baschky-Brown wreck, at Denver, Colorado. Sept. better than ever. It is remembered that after 537 was rebuilt she could handle eight loads of wood or ore from to Lead without doubling the hill to Woodville, something no other narrow gauge hog had been able to do. 5.

1936.

537

The 537 came back

Deadwood

Nemo

Photo by William A. Gibson, courtesy of Jim Bullard

ENGINE

AT NEMO,

NO. 534 1928. For the record, the engine which killed old James Shaw was engine 534, original Black Hills & Fort Pierre number 6. After the fire the locomotive was sent to Havelock, Nebraska, shops for a new cab and continued in use for most of two more years. When the decision to abandon the line was made in the fall of the next year, 1929, the two biggest and best of the Black Hills & Fort Pierre engines, 6 and 7, were scrapped in 1930, the last of a valiant line of little mountain hogs on the first railroad to hit the Black

Hills.

Chapter

Two

DEAD WOOD CENTRAL 1888-1902 Seven years passed from road

Deadwood

the time of the Black Hills Daily Times' urgent appeals for a

before action

was

taken, but in 1888 the railroads began to

come

rail-

Deadwood.

No excited diatribes accompanied the coming of the railroads to Deadwood when they first began to look hke reaUty. No headlines blared. In fact, the reader of those old newspapers finds himself confused as to what railroad the Times reporters were discussing. September of 1888 the first articles of incorporation for the Deadwood Central railroad, first objective was to connect Deadwood to Lead City by narrow gauge track, appeared as a simple news item. Almost immediately we read other news items regarding the Deadwood street railway, which at first seems to be references to the same Deadwood Central but turns out to be a narrow gauge railroad covering a few blocks in Deadwood city only, to be hauled by horses rather than by locomotive power. Both railroad tracks were built at the same time, discussed at the same time, treated with as much or little fanfare, and for a while are quite confused with each other. Before the year is over one finds references to standard gauge rails coming toward Deadwood from two directions, or at least surveying being done for the Burlington through Edgemont south of Deadwood, and for the Elkhorn from Whitewood ten miles north and east of Deadwood. Of course the two standard gauges were only threats or promises in 1888, but the people could see the surveying being done. It was there. One could not discount it. In

whose

So the Deadwood Central at times was lumped under paragraphs headed "Railroad Progress," at times given special notice by itself, and all the time it was stretching toward Lead three miles away, blasting the narrow gulch, bridging Gold Run Creek, having financial troubles.

Though the articles of incorporation were executed August 15, 1888, and patent Deadwood Central received no publicity until September 22:

issued August

20, the

Black Hill Weekly Times, September 22, 1888:

"Deadwood Central Railroad. At 11:30 yesterday morning articles of incorporation, charter and plats of the Deadwood Central Railroad Company were filed in the land office. The capital stock of the company is $1,000,000, represented by 10,000 shares of stock of a par value of $100 each. The officers are: President, J. K. P. Miller; Vice President, Edwin Van Cise; Secretary, Albert W. Coe; Treasurer, J. K. P. Miller. These with John R. Wilson and Edward M. Dale constitute the directors. "Deadwood every direction:

the central starting point for a system of railroads that will extend in to Galena, 9 miles; Deadwood to Briar Hill coal fields, salt

Deadwood

.f^:m il

X-

DEAD WOOD CENTRAL RAILROAD IN GOLD RUN GULCH

1889, showing No. 1, Little Betsy locomoBlack Hills Daily Times, February 27, 1889: "The Deadwood Central enjoyed a rush yesterday, running two coaches both well filled on every trip. The equipment, however, was not accurately adjusted, and numerous vexatious interruptions occurred. The brakes worked poorly, hot boxes resulted, and other little faults resulting, the five o'clock trip was necessarily abandoned. Everything will be in apple pie order and schedule time observed today." Photo and copyright by Grabill, 1889 Used by courtesy of Mrs. James O'Hara, Deadwood

tive.

THE DEADWOOD CENTRAL TRAIN

on the flooded washed-out tracks in Gold Run gulch after an 1890 wreck due to that flood. The locomotive is numbered No. 1 at the front of the engine and appears to have something that might be a water tank over the boiler, but a platform of some sort has been added, the smokestack and headlight are missing and other identification marks are indefinite. Here No. 1 is operating without a tender to uphold the Times description. Photo by courtesy of Paul Talley

springs and oil wells in Wyoming territory, 60 miles; Deadwood to Hay Creek coal banks, 50 miles; Deadwood to head of Whitewood, Whitetail, Fantail, Grizzly, Strawberry, Yellow and Nevada gulches, 35 miles; Deadwood to the head of Deadwood gulch and its

and on

Carbonate and Spearfish, 40 miles; Deadwood to Whitewood, 10 miles; Deadwood to Custer City, 80 miles; Deadwood to the Nigger Hill tin mines, 60 miles; total mileage 344 miles. The life of the corporation is 99 years." Construction work continued on the Gold Run grading, and surveyors were sent higher in the tributaries

hills

look into the possibility of mining spurs.

DEADWOOD CENTRAL ENGINE

While new Deadwood Central was

no position

tains as early as

moun1888, plans were being made for

such extension.

Then, before the the

Deadwood

New

Year's bells had rung,

Central was already in trouble.

contractor didn't have

enough money

The

pay his he could pay them. to

laborers and the men quit until There was a short hullaballoo, the contractor was paid, the men were paid, and work continued.

January

motive for the ".

1889,

Deadwood

first

hear of the loco-

Central

The locomotive

for the road

NO. 1, DEADWOOD, S. D., 1899. man in cab is George Johnson, roundgangway, roundhouse helper. This shows a locomotive in considerable detail on the tender and headlight box. With a strong magnifying glass and good light one can enumerated No. make out letters spelling H. K. Porter circling the number plate at the front of the engine. Moreover, the locomotive is 0-6-0 in wheel alignment. Obviously this must be the H. K. Porter locomotive listed in the Canadian Locomotive Company files, though the engine is shown with a tender and without the water tank on top of the boiler of which the Times speaks. The picture in question is dated 1899, ten years after it was first run on the DC tracks. It was wrecked several times in that ten years, and it is believed that by 1899 the engine may have had changes made to make it look more like an ordinary locomotive. Photo from collection of Boda Wunisley, courtesy of Jim Bullard house foreman and John Darling 1

begin the building of the grades in the higher

Pittsburgh manufacture; the passenger coach and baggage cars are from a celebrated firm in Philadelphia. The engine and cars will be here by the 20th."

January

1889, the Black Hills Daily Times toll road through Gold Run gulch

reported that the

sued the railroad with a prohibiting order to stop

week and work resumed on

its

building.

ary 20, 1889,

we read

later the

suit

was dismissed

the laying of the

rails.

Janu-

of the locomotive again, and

month the news comes thick and fast. The Times mentioned that it had been shipped from

for the next

man accompanying

it from the factory up on arrival, as it was being shipped in pieces. News was that the locomotive weighed "34,000 pounds, has no tender; carries fuel beneath the seats for engineer and fireman and water in

Pittsburgh, a

to help set

1890.

MOUTH OF GOLD RUN

entering

Whitewood

Gulch, showing washout on DC tracks. "On the Lead toll road one of the bridges was washed out, a temporary one was soon in its place and traffic at once resumed. On the DC railroad at several points along the line the embankments were cut out. At other places slides from the hill side obstructed the passage of trains, but according to Superintendent Shaw $200 will cover the entire cost of repairs. Possibly trains will resume running this evening." They were too optimistic, and revised their statements the next day.

Photo by Meddaugh and Winchester, courtesy of Paul Talley

GOLD RUN CREEK WASHOUT, Central

1890, on

Deadwood

line.

Black Hills Daily Times, June

1890:

"The Deadwood Central will not be in condition to resume operations before this afternoon, if perchance it can do so then. The track suffered very little in Gold Run, but this side of the toll gate where the creek heads directly for the track, the bed is badly washed and the rails covered with debris for several yards. The DC loses a hundred dollars or so by injury to the grade for its Nevada Gulch extension."

Photo by Meddaugh and Winchester, courtesy of Paul Talley

GRAND ISLAND 8c WYOMING CENTRAL (B&MR branch) train and Deadwood Central train at Pluma, 1890. DC turning off main line to go into Gold Run gulch. By that spring, the Deadwood Central not only reached from Deadwood to Lead through Pluma, but was building from Pluma to Kirk, up another gulch on a 30 degree angle from the Lead climb up Gold Run gulch but on the map being almost straight from Deadwood if there could be such a thing as straightness in the twisty gulches of the hills. Photo by Locke

a tank over the boiler; has two cow catchers and a grip brake.

Altogether

feet

February 26, 1889: "At noon the 'Deadwood,' a powerful 17 ton locomotive, steamed into the yard and shortly left for Lead with Superintendent Pratt and a number of employees in the cab. The run up was accomplished with utmost ease in about 1 8 minutes, and the return in 15. At 4:10 o'clock, with a coach attached, a second trip was made.

They have air ity of thirty to each car. brakes, and are neatly, handsomely and substantially built and constructed."

The Times named February 23, 1889 as day when the assembled locomotive

the

President Miller and a

first

number

of friends oc-

cupying positions in the cab or elsewhere about the locomotive while representatives of the press and a number of invited guests enjoyed the comforts of the coach. The run was made in seventeen minutes including numerous stops; and the return in sixteen

moved, though the formal opening of the road was left for February 26, three days later: "It was a lively day in and around the yard of the Deadwood Central yesterday. At noon Engineer Shaw completed setting up the locomotive, fires were kindled, and shortly after, the first locomotive seen in Deadwood moved out of the house, and for an hour or

and a half minutes. No effort was exerted at making time, inasmuch as great care was necessary

up and down the track on a trial run. It was a very satisfactory test, witnessed by a large gathering of citizens and an army two

word

gernaut."

length,

great

the ponderous

in all that the

wherever else foot or handhold was presented, and though repeatedly dislodged, quickly returned to their dangerous sport. Parents should restrain the little ones, for great danger hovers around the modem jug-

with seats lengthwise on the sides, with a seating capacis

whom

implies. Despite great exertions of officials to prevent, they clambered upon the pilot and

Black Hills by

"Each

many

machine was a novelty

Whitewood on the edge of the Elkhorn standard gauge railroad during the week of February 12, 1889. The parts were loaded on drays and hauled by mule or ox team the few miles to Deadwood. Two passenger cars arrived the same way: arrived

Peterson, courtesy of Paul Talley

of urchins, to

resembles an overgrown

tram engine for a mine." It

rolled

observing the

curves, cuts, etc.

spite

fit

of the coach to

." .

of lack of

money, law

suits,

cold

weather,

initial indifference,

and vexatious interrup-

Deadwood Central was begun. What about that first Deadwood Central engine? Rumors have had it being hauled by mule

tions the

from Nebraska or other distant points in September 1888. Arguments have prevailed whether it was Baldwin or Porter make, and the year of its building. Nobody has agreed on details of Deadwood Central No. 1. With these newspaper quotations and other train

available records,

now

possible to identify the

engine.

from the Canadian Locomotive Comwho bought the H. K. Porter Company after its sale to Davenport Besler Corporation and therefore have all old H. K. Porter files, states without equivocation that H. K. Porter Company "Built a steam locomotive in 1889 for the Deadletter

pany, Limited,

wood Central R.R., Deadwood, South Dakota, Loco Shop No. 1008, Cylinder size 12x18, Wheel Arrangement O-6-0, and gauge 36"." On the other hand, data obtained from the Chicago, BurUngton, and Quincy files suggests that Deadwood Central's first engine. No. 1, was a Baldwin built in 1888 first as a 2-6-0 type and later

converted to 0-6-0 for switching.

The newspaper

files

say

was

Pittsburgh

make, 34,000 pounds, had no tender, carried fuel beneath the seats for engineer and fireman and water in a tank over the boiler, had two cow catchers and a grip brake. H. K. Porter Company was in Pittsburgh, Baldwin operated in Philadelphia. The evidence seems to indicate that DC No. 1 was a Porter. The Times further shows that it was shipped in January 1889, carried to Whitewood on the Elkhorn

Deadwood Central Builder's Photo of DC #3, March 20, 1897: "Engine No. 'Ruby Basin,' arrived for the Deadwood Central at 2:30 o'clock yesterday morning, by 10:30 had been unloaded from the Baldwin Locomotive works car, on which it rode from Philadelphia to Deadwood, and half an hour later was in shops at tender mercies of a small army of mechanics, employed to place it in readiness for service. Their labors will finish today and the locomotive start on the regular run between this city and Lead tomorrow morning. 'Ruby Basin' is a very different looking piece of rolling stock from either 'Deadwood' or 'Lead City" the two other engines owned by the company. The new one weighs 65,000 pounds, three and a half tons less than the 'Lead City,' has eight driving wheels, is equipped with two sets of sand pipes so that sand can be applied when the engine is backing, has tender built onto the cab, and water tanks placed on each side of and completely hiding the boiler from view unless one stands directly in front of the engine. The Baldwin company turned the locomotive out after working on it for nearly seven months. It is new from stem to gudgen, and should do all the service required and expected of it. "The new locomotive of the DC has a chime whistle which is pleasant to hear. It will be put in its proper place today on No. 3, and do duty thereon." Photo by courtesy of Josepli R. Douda

RUBY BASIN LOCOMOTIVE, 3,

:â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

1891 FLOOD IN GOLD RUN GLLCH between Lead and Deadwood, washout of Ueadv.ouJ which ran between Lead and Deadwood, with engine No. 3, the Ruby Basin.

(

, T-^*

cr.uA Railru^J

Black Hills Daily Times, March 28, 1891

"The Deadwood Central's new engine, Ruby Basin, went regularly into service yesterday, taking the passenger train to Lead at 1 1 o'clock. The engine is said to be the only one of its peculiar make in the United States, and this accounts for the fact that the Baldwin Locomotive Company sent a man all the way from Philadelphia to Deadwood to set it up." Photo by Meddaugli and Winchester, first

courtesy of Paul Talley

railroad

and then hauled

western Transportation ten

mile

distance

in pieces

The locomotive

over the North-

Company wagons

for

ton

the

between Whitewood's standard at Dead-

Central No. 2 was "second-hand," bought from the

gauge railroad and Deadwood, reassembled

wood and put Northwestern

into service

Company

operated

by mule or ox team, whichever seemed most There is no indication in the 1889 newspapers of which was used, mules or oxen, to get the pieces of the locomotive from Whitewood feasible at the time.

Deadwood.

the

Baldwin No.

"Betsy"

the

rest

Number

her

they "

listed

the roster, nor the H. K.

Porter of 1889.

name, as indicated by the Times report, was the "Deadwood," but that name was immediately replaced by railroaders who ran it, passengers who rode behind it, and ultimately by the newsIts first

remained

thing

was 'a bad injun.' In comparison again, No. 2 was also said to be rebuilt from 2-6-0 to a 0-6-0, and we have other It was an engine accurate statistics of No. 2. weighing 49,000 pounds. It could not have been the

called 'Sitting Buir because she

freight

papers themselves, as the "Little Betsy."

No. 2 could well be the in her Old

Pacific.

named by Estelline Bennett Deadwood Days as "a gaunt sort of locomotive

stagecoaches for passenger service and hauled heavy

Denver, Utah

February 26, 1889. The

Transportation

roster furnished by the Burling-

Operating Department states that Deadwood

The engine was

there,

though, incontrovertibly

ready for action no matter what they called

Deadwood people took

to their hearts.

it,

Bennett remembers:

natural

"The Deadwood Central achieved an immediate and spectacular popularity. Dead-

existence.

and

Estelline

wood and Lead people traveled back and forth for the pleasure and the novelty of the traveling. In the days of hacks and bad roads we went when it was necessary and grumbled. "Wing Tsue, the Chinese merchant, took his three small children

up on

the first train and they were so enchanted with the journey that they insisted upon going every day. Whereupon he detailed an old Chinaman to take them back and forth until they tired of

the sport, but that wasn't for weeks."

From

the

first it

brought dehghts to

Black Hills people, true

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;and

always

all sorts

had

troubles.

The Black

Hills

Weekly Times

for

May

17,

1890

mentions rock dangers

"The

six o'clock

train

from Lead

last

evening experienced a very narrow escape from serious accident. Engineer Jewett was at the throttle, Peckinpaw, fireman. Only

CYANIDE PLANT AT PLUMA,

S. D., 2 miles east of Deadwood, shows B&M standard gauge at Pluma depot with Deadwood Central narrow gauge engine and passenger train waiting to get on Deadwood main line, about 1900. The Deadwood Central trains of 1895 are listed in a B&M timetable dated November 17, 1895, showing trains running between Pluma and Lead. Trains left Deadwood for Pluma daily at 8:30 a.m., 9:30, the 10:30, 11:30, 1:15 p.m., 2:25, 3:10, 4:45, 5:45, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 and 10:30 p.m., arriving at Pluma seven minutes later, then on to Lead where it paused for another seven minutes, switched the locomotive from one end to the other and slid down the hill to Pluma and Deadwood, to get into Deadwood for its last daily run at 11:30 p.m. On Sundays the schedule was cut sharply, with trains leaving Deadwood only four times during the day, 11:30 a.m., 1:15 p.m., 2:25 and 7:00 p.m., going through Pluma to Lead and back again to arrive in Deadwood from its circuit by 12:03 p.m., 1:50, 3:43, and 7:33 p.m. If Deadwood-Lead commuters wished to travel later than that on Sunday they must do so on foot or hire a horse.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe and Jim Bullard

Sl^

of its

ART SNOW,

second from

left,

E. E. Spaulding, extreme right, at cinder pit of Lead roundhouse, engine 537, around 1910. From 1901, Deadwood Central engines could be found on either line, even being serviced at the roundhouse in Lead which formerly was for the convenience of only Black Hills & Fort Pierre hogs. Little Betsy, the One Spot, became No. 500; No. 2 (gaunt Sitting Bull, officially the "Lead City") became 499; No. 3 (Ruby Basin), 498; No. 4 (the second-hander that didn't rate a special name), 497; No. 5, the best of the lot, 496; and No. 6, the biggest of them all, 495.

Photo hy courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

one coach was attached, containing a dozen As the train approached bridge 7, an immense boulder weighing at least 1,000 pounds, loosened by the snow and rain rolled from a point ten feet above the track, striking the locomotive just behind the

passengers.

Fortunately the rock was more fragile than the engine, and was completely demolished, else the train would have gone into the ditch. As it was, the train was brought to an almost instantaneous standstill, tossing the passengers violently from their seats. No one was hurt, and the engine escaped great pilot.

The track was cleared of debris, and the train completed its run without other incident of note." injury.

Statistics are available for the tral officers,

Deadwood CenThe officers

stock and costs for 1889.

were unchanged from the incorporation time. Stock paid in, $100,000. Five stock-holders (one can assume that the stockholders were the five officers and directors). Miles of road built, 3.33 miles, leaving quite a chunk of the original planned 344 miles still to be built. Cost of road, $90,000; equipment, $10,000. Passenger earnings, $7,000, which was comprised of total operations $3,830 and others, $3,170. They had run 72,000 miles and carried 29,123 passengers. They owned one locomotive, two passenger cars, one freight car, and two depots, one of which was in Deadwood and the other at Lead. In the first week of June 1890 the spring rains and melting snows in the hills occasioned floods through the narrow gulches, including Gold Run

gulch with

its

trouble ridden

Deadwood

Central.

1890 the Grand Island and Wyoming Central, branch line of the Burlington and Missouri River In

TROLLEY AT DEADWOOD CENTRAL around 1902 or

"03.

roundhouse

Trolley 12152.

From old pictures we see that the trolleys were numbered 12150. 12151, and 12152. and all three looked almost exactly alike.

George Doran, who was working for the

Burlington & Missouri River in 1902-03-04, remembers that he was one of the crew that cleaned the first trolley though he never was one of the regular trolley crews. It was the first night he went to work, he says. Jack Birdsell, Assistant Superintendent for the Burlington in Deadwood. sent him to the Deadwood Central roundhouse with orders to clean the

motor

car. trolleys

were housed in the DC roundhouse and narrow gauge steam engines were transferred to the newly built Burlington roundhouse. The power house for the interurban line was located behind the CBQ roundhouse, across the creek at the Deadwood Belt Light and Power Company located at Pluma. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

The

the

BURLINGTON TROLLEY between Pluma and Lead, Aug.

16, 1907.

lived as a small child in the Black Hills during the 1916-1923 days of the trolley, and remember it with delight even now. The trolley did not concern us much from Pluma to Deadwood, that being an infinite distance from our home in Lead, but from Pluma to Lead we knew the track every inch of the

way.

The rails came in fairly gentle curves from Deadwood to Pluma, then angled sharply away from the three-railed line at Englewood to start the climb up Gold Run gulch. The creek boiled black and alongside the trolley track, carrying mine tailings and sewage from nondescript dirt highway parLead. alleled the tracks, but we remember the highway mostly for its magnificent availability as a sleigh-riding paradise in those days of little highway traffic.

churning

J. A. Jobe, by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

Photo by

which was the network of railroads west of the Mis-

by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, was pushing north from Nebraska toward the Black Hills, and to clear the way for further souri River controlled

expansion the Grand Island

purchased the

& Wyoming

Central

from Englewood a few miles Deadwood on the Deadwood Cen-

line

south of Kirk to tral right of

way, with the

reserving the right to

lay a third

narrow gauge

rail

from Kirk

wood and

GI&WC

the

standard gauge

rail

to Engle-

Deadwood, both

railroad companies to operate over the three railed section. it

The agreement accomplished two

things

Deadwood with standard extended the Deadwood Central's

brought the Burlington to

gauge

and

rails,

service to mines.

With Burlington backing in its pocket, the DC resumed its building of narrow gauge rails from Kirk to the hardrock mines in the gulches and mountains branching from the main valley in which Kirk was situated, going to Whitetail Switch, Nevada Gulch, Fantail Gulch, and Welcome, all of them comprising an area roughly referred to as the

Ruby

Basin.

1891

the

motives 2 and

Deadwood the

Central added locoTimes for January 17, 1891

noting:

"Engine No.

'Lead City' by name,

arrived for the yesterday, and at 5 o'clock last evening, was hauled up to the round house. The engine is one formerly in use on a narrow gauge system in Colorado, owned by the road. The engine differs greatly in appearance from the 'Deadwood' and will not be nearly so comfortable to operate. The engineer's and fireman's .

B&M

"Deadwood Central engine No.

showed

pulling quahties yesterday by hauling five cars, heavily laden with steel from a Theatre over the up point behind the grade to the depot. its

B&M

Gem

"Superintendent

reserving the right to lay a

from Kirk

on top of the box, and as there is hardly room to turn around the quarters will be exceedingly warm even in coldest weather." January 22, 1891: seats are almost immediately

fire

Shaw

yesterday began

laying switches from the Deadwood Central third turntable to the Burlington main Une. rail wiU be put down on ties of the latter from end of the switch to the Deadwood Central depot, this forenoon, and during afternoon 'Lead City' or 'Bridget' as the engine recently received by the Deadwood Central has been christened, wiU be brought out of

DE.ADWOOD AROUND

1902, showing Burlington roundhouse, freight house and upper yard, right center of picture.

Photo from the collection of courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

R. Dunlap,

"'-

THE TROLLEY GOING FROM LEAD TO PLUMA.

The

trolley

it^clt

uas

ijcntlc

thinL-

r.^

all

the

frightening monster that the narrow gauge locomotives seemed to us children. There was no huffing of steam, chugging of pistons, black smoke nor noisy power as in the engines. The trolley merely clanked along the rails in a peaceful contemplative climb toward the heights of Lead. From collection of John Mayo, courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

roundhouse and placed in service on regbetween Deadwood and Lead. Engineer Woods, who has it in charge, is greatly pleased with his iron steed, though he states it is a little stiff as yet, and is not as

back on the road again the next day and No. 2

quick to

days

the

ular runs

and No. 2 blew out its cylinder head. "Betsy" was still in the shops being repaired, so

derailed,

the whole schedule

start as the old engine."

February

later,

was stopped. They got "Betsy" five

but No. 2 was wrecked again two days

afterwards and a week later "Betsy" collided with

1891, the Times reported that

B&M

No. 2 had jumped track in the B&M yard, two freight cars ran through an open switch and were

engine

130,

which put them both

shops again. "Besty" looked

like a

the

scrap pile of iron.

TROLLEY 12151 opposite postoffice building. Lead. S. Dakota, June 28. 1913. Having reached the lower city limTROLLEY AT PLUMA DEPOT. Mosul

Cvanide Plant. Dakota, before 1912. Pluma was then, as now, a site for industrial purposes with very few residences. At the turn of the century it held the Kildonan chlorination plant which was converted in 1902 to the Mogul Cyanide mill. Three mines were in the nearby vicinity. A smattering of houses was there, but it was no real town. A fine depot served both railroad tracks, the one leading to Lead and the other to Englewood and beyond that to all of America. The Kildonan-Mogul mill burnt to the ground in 1912, and today Pluma is characterized more as an out-of-town shopping area, groceries, a dairy, a beer joint, an ice plant and the depot is gone. Postcard by Bloom Bros. Importers, courtesy of Mrs. Marion Lutey Pluma,

the trolley ambled past the Homestake settling dam. across a trestle on lower Main street, up the steep streets of the business district and clear past the stores to the City Park on the far side of Lead. Its destination was important. The original Lead City Park has been gone these many years, but it once was the site of Fourth of July celebrations and picnics, dances in the pavillion, speech making and vr'r'ou: other civic enterprises. its,

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

the hub, and kindling wood. that the engine will probably not be able to enter service again for ten days or two weeks. It will have to be rebuilt entirely, and during this time the road must remain inoperative, since repairs to No. 2, wrecked the fatal night of Feb. 1 1th, are not yet complete." driving wheel

The Times noted

"The little engine bore as strong a resemblance to a threshing machine as to a locomotive. The water jacket and tank are torn off, and were found 20 feet from balance of the wreckage; driving bars are broken, one

TROLLEY 12152 AT LEAD, 1912. Believed to be Bert Hutton and Charley Barton. A crew of two men was needed to run the trolleys, an engineer and a conductor. Though we do not have any kind of a complete list of men who worked those trolleys, there were a few whose names were directly connected to that service.

Oldtimers remember that Charley Barton was one of the engineers who ran the trolley. He had been an engineer on the same gulch when the steam engine ran up and down the incline, so was a natural for the job. There were three Barton brothers. We find mention of a George Barton earlier in 1899, then both Charley and Fred Barton in connection with the trolleys. Fred may have been the one remembered as Kid Barton, the fireman.

Bert Hutton was another whose picture

cracked

woodwork is smashed into The damage is so thorough

appears with

and J. Clyde Lang worked on all the narrow gauge roads after 1916, including the trolley. Lang remembers that the Black Hills & Fort Pierre run to Nemo, the Deadwood Central in its Bald Mountain run. the Spearfish high line, and the two trolley cars had regular crews. Eric Skalinder and Barton were on the morning trolley, Bert Hutton and Mundell taking the evening and night trolleys around 1915. All the other jobs in Black Hills narrow gauge railroading around that time were handled by men on the extra board. The oldest man in service had his choice of what run he preferred each day, except the trolley photos,

for the regular crews.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

THE KILDONAN CHLORINATION PLANT, 1901.

The whole town

Pluma,

Lead City enjoyed

1907 press clipping tells of riding between Lead and Pluma, vastly important:

that trolley. the possibilities of sleigh in which the trolley was

Lead Daily

Obviously the Deadwood Central needed another

new Baldwin built "Ruby Basin" because of

the

also

Number 3 was 1891 and named the

its

use in that area, though

March they

engine, and in

chugged up Gold

got

Run

it.

gulch occasionally to

Call, December 18, 1907: "Last night was the night of all nights for the population of Lead and the sports indulged in were highly exhilarating to them and afforded considerable amusement for the older people who lined the streets to watch the many coasting parties. While it is hazardous sport, many of the older people felt that they would like to take a hand in the fun. All evening long a continuous string of kids came flitting down Main, Mill and Bleeker streets. The coasters would start on the hill at the head of Main street and go like the wind clear through to Pluma without interference. Then they would take the trolley back

and try it over. There were some great exhibitions of nerve, and many hazardous risks run. However, none of the youngsters were hurt and they all enjoyed the sport to excess."

Photo by O'Harra,

Though No. 2 was sometimes used on Gold Run, too, its principal field was the Ruby carry passengers.

Whichever was was the practice to Lead and head down hill

courtesy of South Dakota School of Mines

Basin territory for freight haulage.

used on the Gold

Run chmb,

back the locomotive to to

At Lead a

Deadwood.

short side track at the

depot with a switch at each end allowed the train to

come up

the depot to couple

the

main

line,

cut off cars in front of

and run the engine through the onto the train

Passenger

fares

at the

were

side track

other end.

25c

Deadwood and Lead, 45c round

one trip.

was

The Black

was almost "a previous year.

June

Hills Daily Times,

vivid details of the

wreck of that

1892, gives

year, noting that

of the accident"

repetition

The engine wheels

of the

started sliding on

the steep frosty rails of the morning, and the train

way between It is

The

year later in almost the same spot.

hardly in a position to endure them.

no won-

der that one of the early railroaders, reminiscing

about those days, remembered that "Charley Barton ran the narrow gauge from Deadwood to Lead City back and forth all day." That steep gully was the scene of two rather One jolting accidents during the first few years. occurred during the spring of 1891, and the other a

away from control. Everybody jumped, and most of them were hurt. As for the locomotive itself, the Times said it was a total wreck; but Betsy was rebuilt again despite her injuries, and kept going. got

DEADWOOD BEFORE

1900.

Deadwood

Central roundhouse is against the hill at left center of photograph. Jan. 23, 1891: "The third rail

necessary

was laid yesterday afternoon from the switch put in to connect the DC turntable with the B&M track to the depot at foot of Lee The engine restreet.

cently received had meanwhile been brought out of the round house, and as soon was ready, track the as

steamed

down

and

was

switched on to the main line, coupling onto the passenger

coach first

half

and trip

past

starting

over

the eight

for

its

road

o'clock.

"Deadwood," or "Betsey." engine No. 1 is now in the roundhouse, and will be kept there until repairs necessary to the firebox have been

made." January

27, 1891: engine that "Betsy, the has been in the shop for repairs for a few days, was running on the road again yesterday."

By 1893

Deadwood

Central still had only had changed its roUing stock to two baggage cars, two passengers, four box cars, nine ore cars, and five platforms. They were hauling satisfying amounts of ore for such a small train, showing a total earnings for June 1893 the

round trip from Deadwood, Lead and Central, and one and one-fifth fare for the round trip from other points."

the three locomotives, but

What

1892 or

you all

& Quincy bought

use, the Chicago, Burlington

Deadwood

of the

and though

notes,

the

depending upon which records

'93,

Deadwood

Central stock and mortgage left

the railroad operating as

Central in name, the Burhngton com-

pany operated

without formal written

as agent,

lease or operating agreement.

management must be given

the

credit

for

Burlington additional

when they added Carthage, Mogul and

extensions built after that date lines

mines

to reach the

Baltimore. T. S. Howland had taken the job as secretary by 1893, A. D. Wilson, superintendent, and I. S. P. Weeks, Chief Engineer.

One

event of considerable note was the excur-

Ruby Basin on the Deadwood Central in August of 1893. By that summer the Deadwood Central railway had plenty of company around the northern hills section with the Black Hills & Fort sion to

Pierre

running out of Lead, the Burlington lines

puffing through the southern

hills

and the Elkhorn's narrow gauge

Deadwood

gulch to

excursion to

many

from Edgemont, up

trains running

Ruby Basin was one

which

all

the Black Hills railroads took part, the annual

Day

The Times

celebration.

"The be held

TROLLEY

describes

it,

Labor

in part:

annual Labor Day picnic will year on Ruby Flat. All our

sixth

this

railroads have

early

The

of the higher mines.

12150

made

AT LEAD TICKET

National

a rate of one fare for the

OFFICE,

outside of

Bank

building. August 21, 1907. Then there was the enterprising conductor who made a small illegal fortune on the trolley line, who shall remain nameless because we are not sure whether he is still living or not and we do not wish to risk a possible libel suit. The conductor sold tickets in Lead, it is said, and failed to report sales of such tickets, pocketing the money himself. He managed to keep the racket going for quite a while, nobody being able to trace the leak in funds. Finally Jack Birdsell trapped him by planting railroad detectives on the trolley day after day, and fired him. No explanation is given as to why the conductor got off with no further punishment. The conductor didn't mind being fired. He took his ill-gotten gains and went to California, it is said, where he bought himself a fruit farm and lived in comfort for the rest of his life. As a matter of memory, there seem to be more than one railroad man who was not above selling an occasional unlisted ticket. When they were caught, and they often were, they were fired. In spite of the fact that one of Jack Birdseirs duties was to find and fire such miscreants, Birdsell is remembered by early railroad men as "a pretty First

good guy."

Photo by

J. Arlliiir

Jobe

must have given the Times

roads!"

of $710, for example. In

satisfaction that

editor to be able to write so casually "all our rail-

the "vast throng estimated to be in the neigh-

borhood of 3,000 people," the Deadwood Central mountain hog carried 415 people on that trip, collecting fares of S207.50. Not bad for one day. Another locomotive was acquired for the Deadwood Central in 1894 when they bought No. 4 second-hand from the Denver Utah & Pacific, the same place they had found No. 2. No. 4 had been built in 1889, worked on the DU&P until 1894 as Number 6, then renumbered for the DC railroad to Number 4. It was needed to pull ore from the Ruby Basin mines and was entirely adequate for that job, but it had seen its best days.

Two

years later the

Deadwood

Burlington presented the

Central with the best

wood

or coal burn-

had ever run on their lines, brand new Number 5, weighing 97,000 pounds in her bare wheels with a tractive effort of 20,800 pounds. That was pretty good considering the next most powerful hog. No. 3, had a tractive effort of 13,300 pounds. They paid $10,500 for it, a sum of money that commanded respect in those days, but she was the best engine to work of the lot. She was big so big that she could not be operated on the wye at Woodville when the Burlington took both railroads under her wing but boy, could she puU! There was a little old mountain hog to remember! Little Betsy was still being used as a passenger engine occasionally in spite of the fact that she had been lately confined to switching in the Deadwood ing

hog

that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

yards.

On December

11, 1899, a

runaway box car

loaded with coke struck her tank, "driving

clear

mines

smaller

original

Grand

Island

into the cab

& Wyoming

Central even the mines in the very

Little Betsy, the

highest hiUs.

There was plenty to do. There were it. The little mountain trains screeched

and against the end of the boiler." One Spot, was certainly having her troubles. She had been wrecked in the flood of 1890 when the rails through Gold Run Gulch had been washed in a twisted mass, wrecked again in 1891 and 1892 when the slippery rails piled her in a heap on the rocks, used as passenger locomotive, freight hog, switch engine, and now with no fault of a her own a runaway box car stove in her tank. She had to keep going she still had a few more years of work left in her. They patched her up and put her back in the Deadwood yards again. The company bought No. 6 in 1900, making a total of six locomotives on hand. All but the first were Baldwins, three of them 2-8-0 wheel pattern including No.'s 3, 5 and 6, but 5 and 6 were the big babies of the lot. Number 6 cost less than No. 5, with a payment of $9,220, but she was bigger in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

weight and

all

other measurements, and could pull

2,450 pounds more than No. 5. There was no gainsaying it. No. 6 was a mighty sweet little hog even

though she was, at

Homestake mine, the group Ruby Basin, and through its

Woodville.

No.

wye would be

too big for the

For the time being neither

used on that run. In July 1901, the Burlington

acquired control of the Black Hills

Deadwood

Missouri River

Fort Pierre.

With the two narrow gauge lines under their wings, the B&MR pooled the equipment of both railroads and renumbered them to use interchangeably on either track. With the two railroads busy, the Burlington set to work to haul ore and wood in earnest for the big

They already had

the

Central.

the

men

around the curves with rolling cars rails

when

coal

hills to

when

their brakies clubbing the

the grades got steep, sanding the

the ice glazed the traction, throwing

the

and

fireboxes

wood

up the

struggling

top the hard stretches.

Plans were being

made

change Gold

Run

gulch from steam locomotive service to trolley service

between Lead and Deadwood. The DC, always

a road to do things in a spectacular manner, ap-

proached the end of her train career through Gold Run with a smash and a holler. The "three spot," or

"Ruby

Basin," took a dive into a snowbank on

men

April 10, apparently just to keep the

engine turned over and

but

its

injuries

slid

were only

feet in

fifty

the

The snow

Of more dramatic

slight.

May

impact was the runaway ore car on

A brakeman

alert.

22, 1902.

Pluma, uphill and a mile away, threw

wrong switch while handling ore cars and one of main line heading toward Deadwood. It careened down the gulch, picking up speed until it hit the Deadwood yards and headed for the depot. Unfortunately a crowd of people was congregated at the depot. Their wild scramble was helped by Jack Birdsell's action at the Deadwood switch. Birdsell managed to send the ore car onto the side track in the nick of time, but the runaway the

the ore cars went on the

crashed into the string of cars there "throwing ore

and splinters for a great distance into the Although "the impact was something awful,

THE NATALIE ENGINE

Wonderland Park Museum, Billings, Montana, 1958. In 1910 the little "donkey engine" was used in the reconstruction of the Black Hills & Fort Pierre line after the flood that devastated the rails and

roadbed

Elk Canyon.

The

Natalie was used in evacuating and other twisted rails the equipment out of Elk Canyon, and then for construction haulnew rebuilding the in age branch.

The Branch Mint was abandoned in 1912 when the company went into receivership, and for years afterwards the rested in her private shed, useless and unwanted. In 1953 she was sold to the Won-

Natalie

derland Park lings,

museum

Montana,

Bil-

where she

doubtless polished mer glory today.

Photo by Mrs. John W. Ryder, courtesy of

Roger O'Keefe

her forS.

air." .

twenty minutes the wreck had been cleared away

and a new

train switched

down

to the depot

and

narrow gauge were resumed." Central! We hope you have noticed that in every case of emergency, the rails were immediately cleared and train service resumed. Neither rocks nor ice, nor wrecks nor floods, snowbanks nor careening ore cars could the trips over the

Gallant

little

keep the Deadwood Central long.

trains

immobilized for

Always they cleared the tracks and kept

going!

Deadwood

1901-1904,

Under Burlington

Missouri

River Management

The Deadwood Central lines had been operated by the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad since

HOODOO MINE

showing ore bin and the Natalie engine at base. Jim Hardin, white shirt; engineer Bill Court, standing below. Could be Dell Fockler in front. One of the Galena mining operations must be mentioned because of its private venture into narrow gauge railroading. Jim Hardin, promoter of the Branch Mint holdings (approximately 1903-1912) dreamed big dreams and executed them with a flourish. He began the building of a mill at the lower end of Galena from which he laid the rails for a narrow gauge spur through Galena and up the hillsides to mines about three miles beyond town, the Hoodoo, Gilt Edge and others. He bought a narrow gauge engine, named it the Natalie, and hauled ore from the Two Bit mines at the upper end of his three mile stretch to the Branch Mint mill in lower Galena. At that point he connected his rails to the Burlington track, thus making it possible for the Natalie to haul his ore as far as the Burlington railway and then switch the ore cars to a Burlington engine to be hauled to with Boda

the

Wamsley

Deadwood

smelter or other destination.

Photo by courtesy of Fred Borsch

Wff f ^puf k ^ ''^^ ^ t-'^

mi V

1893, but in 1901 negotiations were begun to make one of the more startling changes of the day in transportation service for the Black Hills. The 3.97 miles between the Deadwood Central roundhouse in Deadwood and the end of the line at the far high terminus in

Lead was re-vamped

accommodate an electric as the motor car,

trolley service, otherwise

known

by those who ran

electric train, or street railway

or rode

it.

The steam engine was taken

off that

entirely and used elsewhere on the Black narrow gauges, leaving the 2.25 miles between Lead and Pluma exclusively for the use of the trolley.

stretch Hills

The Electric Line was procured Thomas Grier on December 27,

the

1901

name with

the

beginning of operation in 1902. If

northern

hills

people thought they had deluxe

transportation before,

adequately

served

now

they

any

themselves as

felt

metropolitan

district.

Though there was only one track, three trolleys were owned and used. One was probably always in the round house for repair and emergency use, the

other two used either singly or in tandem as the traffic required.

Ordinarily one trolley could handle

summer when

celebrations were was not unusual to need two trolleys hooked together and both loaded to the gills. In a town built on the sides of hills, the trolley was essential to get everybody there. That trolley service shuttled back and forth between Lead and Deadwood with a stop at Pluma besides every block in both towns for 22 years. A timetable issued by the Burlington in 1918 stated the load, but in the

held at one town or another

that 14 trips were made daily, between Lead and Deadwood.

The

fact of the trolley line

operation of the rest of the

row gauge

lines.

The

each direction

had no

Deadwood

effect

on the

Central nar-

coal burning hogs continued

between Deadwood and Englcwood and particularly through Ruby Basin to accommodate the

to operate

mines.

About

wood

the most important extension of the

Dead-

Central line after 1902 was a 6.95 mile stretch

from Galena Junction on the original Black Hills & Fort Pierre line down Bear Butte creek to Galena, a mining town booming on silver rather than gold. That spur was the last built officially in the name of the Deadwood Central, and left the map of the Deadwood Central railroad lines essentially as shown on the

map

included with the Corporate history of the

line issued

by the Burlington

1921.

started building with a grandiose plan of

they ended their laying of

hardly grand

total,

rails

They had 344 miles,

with 25.68 miles, a

but an important link in the

service of the early mines of the northern hills.

I'M

.i*.

THE NATALIE ENGINE ON THE BRANCH MINT

LINE, 1906. Possibly Bill Court standing, Jim Hardin him. Boda Wamsley, engineer. It was a dandy little mountain hog, able to haul Burlington narrow gauge cars as easily as its own ore cars on its three mile route. Photo by courtesy of Fred Borsch sitting next to

'^t

»»v

^^>, ft,

'"«^

'»**.«»

-11?.

^?H>^

•w

A »•

? I

•»»

J^%£^^

iJ"

.*^

AjhvHfe^^^BBHI

THE NATALIE ORE TRAIN

line) crossing Terrible Gulch, near Galena, coming from Hoodoo Mill. TTiey operated the Natalie without a tender if pictures can be believed as typical operation procedures, firing her before each run up the hill and using the downhill grade to advantage on the trip back to the mill. She was housed in a private shed built only for her own use.

mine down

to the

(Branch Mint

Branch Mint

Photo by courtesy of Fred Borsch

Galena had had ups and downs of various importance since

its first

rail service until

the

excitement in 1876, but never

B&MR

extended the Deadwood

town in January 1902. At that particular time Galena was booming with its big Union Hill holdings. Other small mills operated Central

rails

into

independently,

made

but the

combination of

all

mines

economically feasible for a railroad to build

into town.

Though

the

Union

Hill folded shortly

companies were formed and operated long enough to keep the Galena spur going. Stations listed on that seven mile stretch other

thereafter,

included

Moll,

silver

Bion,

mining

Strawberry

Spur,

Galena,

Richmond, and from Strawberry Spur to Oro Fino. All but the town of Galena and Strawberry Spur were names of mines. Griggs, and

The Ruby Basin mines were keeping the boys The ore cars hauled a constant stream of ore down the hills to the Deadwood smelter known as the D. & D. Smelter, one mile below town. Once busy, too.

there,

they pulled the cars to a siding above the

smelter and the

dumped them in an operation known to as the "Deadwood Smelter Sand-

railroaders

wich."

Jim Bullard gives an explanation:

"Deadwood Smelter Sandwich. I never knew who started that name for the cut of cars yard men in the Q yard made up and shoved on that high trestle for the giant smelwith its great chimneys belching smoke and flames day and night, but it was a rather neat way of putting it. There were big bins down in the smelter. Contents of the different cars put on the high trestle poured down long metal chutes when the cars were dumped. They were cars with dump doors at bottom or sides of car. "The yard clerk would go to the smelter and check with the smelter boss on what was needed in the way of switching and when they wanted their loads spotted on the trestle. The yard foreman of the switch crew who switched smelter would read the yard clerk's report, which varied as the needs of smelter were seldom the same. It might read like this 'Smelter, You can pull all empties at midnight, and give them sandwich as soon as you pull loads. Head car, 1 lime rock, then 2 coal, 1 coke, and 3 ore.' That would be a seven car sandwich and would call for a three link connection with narrow gauge and standard gauge as only the ore cars were narrow gauge. "When you finally got that sandwich together and the hogger backed up to take a ter

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

run

at that high trestle forty feet above, all the crew were on the job, every man with his brake club ready to start tieing 'em down the second that sandwich hit the level track but

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

oh boy, you never knew

just

what would hap-

RUBY BASIN ORE TRAIN Jim Bullard in the

tells

the story of

Ruby Basin

lines.

One

leaving

Deadwood, before 1914, engine 538. On

the lighter side of railroading. Beers and Billy Thomas gave Al Gavin, Dispatcher, "one fast ride" fine spring morning in 1903, Bullard says:

when

he.

Jimmy

"Al Gavin put his little railroad speeder on the back end of an ore car and went up with us on the ore train. He went around with us as we switched the various spurs, and while switching the Sun Dance mine Billy Thomas and I hatched up something to put some thrill into the job. We told our hogger, Jimmy Beers, when we started down the mountain with the loads of ore we picked up at Sun Dance, to call for hand brakes, reverse his hog and make like they were about to get away from us. He said O.K. Away we went with Al Gavin sitting on the back end of the rear ore car. "We clambered over the cars tieing 'em down. Beers was screaming for brakes. Then we broke a brake chain on one of our cars, and we really had all we could do to hold them. Our hogger had his little hog in reverse, and the fireboy tied down the hand brake on the engine tank. Anyway we got stopped, and we all said never again. Our friend, the dispatcher never paid any attention to what had been going on. He got his speeder on the rails and said. Good bye, boys, going back to Deadwood. Been a nice " trip, see you later.' Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe .

pen on that wild dash up the indine. Sometimes it was snowing so hard you could hardly see and so cold that you were half numb when you clambered down from your car that you had been clubbing. When for some reason a yard man got sick or had been injured and no other switchman available they would grab one of us brakies after we got in on our run and work us till midnight and sometimes all night, but it was do it or else. Nobody coddled anybody while I was doing my little stint on the ore and wood trains around Deadwood and Lead, South Dakota, in 1902-03.*'

no longer

pull

its

load.

Company bought

Both were

finished.

Fitzhugh

Betsy and the Burlington scrapped

No. 4 themselves. There were motives on the two narrow gauge

still

enough loco-

lines to

handle the

traffic.

1904-1930,

In late

Burlington

Under Chicago, Burlington QL Quincy

1904 a change

Missouri River

Burlington railroads, and

policy dropped the

name

for the western

the holdings of the

com-

pany became frankly and openly the Chicago, Burlington & Ouincy railroad from one end of the Black

George Doran was one of the switchmen on 1902 and 1903. In 1903 two of the Deadwood Central mountain hogs were consigned to the scrap pile. No. 1, valiant Little Betsy, had had it. Second-hand No. 4 could

Hills to the other.

that smelter job for a while in

Railroad

either the Burlington, as

various branches since

theQ.

its

men

called the

had been known

CB&O in

its

organization, or simply

THE

SMELTER,

1 mile below Deadwood, Burlington tracks above it. One of the memorable jobs of making of a Deadwood Smelter Sandwich. The big smelter was known as the D. and D. Smelter (Deadwood and Delaware Smelter) and was owned by the Golden Reward Gold Mining Company, a group of mines working in the Ruby Basin area near Fantail and Stewart gulches. The smelter itself was on the lower end of Deadwood, down hill as the railroad ran from anything in Ruby Basin or many other gold mines in the northern hills. The Golden Reward mine operated from about 1887 to 1918. and it acquired the big smelter in 1899. The railroad "sandwich" originated from the fact that the smelter needed certain proportions of lime, coal, coke and ore to make a correct mixture for smelting the ore. In spite of the railroad's cooperation in measuring materials, the smelter men went on a strike to protest the laying off of one man in March 1903. The plant employed over a hundred men who lived in Deadwood, many of them building and occupying their own homes. Its suspension affected nearly five hundred men directly, for between three and four hundred miners were employed in the Bald Mountain and Ruby Basin mines of the company, and these were nearly all discharged as soon as operations ceased at the plant. The mines opened again, but the smelter was closed as a result of that strike and never opened again. Photo by H. R. Locke & Co., courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

the early 1900's

extra

man

was

the

Lang remembered

that Skalinder

and an

out in 1917, and the line from Kirk to 630 feet

handled the business from Englewood to

Deadwood and switched

beyond Fantail switch

Deadwood yard. Other Deadwood and Lead in

verted to

the

engineers working out of

down Gold Run

Ed Beard, PenGeorge Lord, and Harry Sheddon. Some of the brakemen in that year were Morris Jacobson, Jack Knowles, Fred Skalinder,

niger,

these

men

history for

are either retired in 1958 or have died.

and abandonments.

The

years, gives the details of aban-

letter states

"The appUcation filed

Central comprises a series of adjustments, converreappraisals,

trolley

1926.

gulch,

many

donment. The

All of

During the 1920's, the history of the Deadwood sions,

and in 1924 the application for abandonment was made. A letter from the Public UtiUties Commission of the State of South Dakota to Richard E. Karschnik, who has been a railroad fan and collector of railroad

ductors at that time were Eric Skalinder, Bert Hut-

Herb Webb, Archie Mozeter, Boy Webb.

was conAutomobiles unnecessary up and

at Fantail Junction

gauge

were making the beloved

1915 included Fred Allen, Jim Shaw, Harry Harbottle, George Redfern, and Dan Dunaway. Conton,

standard

sion, jointly

road

[for

abandonment] was

Commerce CommisDeadwood Central Rail-

with the Interstate

by the

Company and

the Chicago, BurUngton Railroad Company, on May 9, 1924. The South Dakota Board of Railroad Commissioners (predecessor to Public Utili-

rails

& Quincy

from Whitetail Junction to Mogul were abandoned in 1926, as was the stretch between Carthage Junction to Mikado and the Fantail Junction to Ben Hur. The third rail from Englewood to Kirk was ripped

ties

Commission) offered no objection and

made no

representations in the case.

AROUND

ENGINE 538 IN VIONITY OF FANTAIL 1905. Conductor Art Thomson extreme left, engineer Charley Young under the "8." This engine was an oddity inasmuch as the frame was outside of the drivers. The CBQ reorganization made necessary the re-numbering of the Black Hills narrow gauge hogs a third time. The Black Hills & Fort Pierre had six locomotives still in use. as has been noted, and the Deadwood Central was operating four. DC No. 2. B&MR 499 was renumbered 539, used for eight more years and scrapped in August 1913. No. 3. B&MR 498. became 535, used until 1910 and scrapped. No. 5. B&MR 496. became No. 537; and No. 6, B&MR 495. became 538. Both of the latter lasted the lifetime of the narrow gauges in the Black Hills, fine old locomotives that survived the wrecks and remodeling, the tough blizzard conditions of the hills, the troubles and struggles in all the demands made upon them. "The following

bit

of history

through the Grand Island & Wyoming CenRailroad Company, purchased from the

taken

from the Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission in this case: 'Authority is sought to abandon an electric trolley line, owned by it, extending from and in the city of Lead to

tral

Deadwood Central the right of way and grade of the latter company between Deadwood and Englewood. Pluma, which is intermediate between Deadwood and Englewood, is 1.72 miles from Deadwood, and the con-

a connection with the Burlington Railroad at Pluma, 2.25 miles, and a third rail connecting with said trolley line at Pluma and laid on the ties of the Burlington to the depot and yard of the Burlington in Deadwood, 1.72

wood

to the

Dead-

wood

Central the right to lay a third rail on the ties of the Burlington between Deadwood and Englewood and to operate trains there-

The

line was completed from DeadLead, 2.89 miles, in 1889, since which time extensions totaling 1.08 miles have been constructed to the Lead terminus. On or about April 1, 1893, the Burlington acquired all the capital stock and bonds of the Deadwood Central and has since oper-

miles.

above-mentioned reserved

tract

over.'

"The narrow gauge trolley line extending from Deadwood to Lead, a distance of 3.97 miles, and known as the Deadwood Central Railroad was abandoned, effective as of August 21, 1924, by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission in its Finance Docket No. 4020."

ated the line in question as a part of its system, first as a narrow-gauge steam line, and since 1902, as an electric trolley line for the transportation of passengers, baggage, express and U. S. mail. By deed and contract dated April 26, 1890, the CB&Q R.R. Co.,

The

rails,

ripped out

epoch.

1889, were marking the end of another

laid so enthusiastically in

1927,

ENGINEER JOE WITEWACK WITH ENGINE

537 spotted at the oil crane at Englewood in the 1920's. Englea railroad center for three lines, the original Grand Island & Wyoming Central coming into the hills, the Black Hills & Fort Pierre, and the Deadwood Central. The third rail on the main track at Englewood was used only to permit narrow gauge engines to take fuel oil at the roundhouse when the locomotives were converted to oil burners in 1912. The lower yard was used to transfer material arriving in standard gauge cars to narrow gauge cars bound for points on the old Deadwood Central and BH&FP lines. The transfer track at Deadwood was three rail right up to the end, as well as all yard tracks in Deadwood and Lead.

wood was

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

There had been no traffic on the Galena spur since 1921 when most of the mines in that area ceased operating, so again the year 1927 found a request for abandonment of the Galena to Galena Junction 7 mile track,

to the I.C.C.

The request was

ary 29, 1927. cials

made

granted.

their time.

the narrow gauge switch engine out of service in

Deadwood and engines

on JanuRail

lines.

summers before

remember

that

first

Black Hills

1929 was the year and that 1930

of the great depression years.

Deadwood

them

Central No.

Burlington

other

to 5,

B&MR

496,

CBQ

much

Southern

where she served for nine years in the Colorado mountains on the Denver-Leadville line, a stretch serving various small mines in that area. She was in the Santa Fe roundhouse in Denver in 1937, and March 1939 returned to CBQ custody. In August of that year, 1939, the Q dismantled her in the Denver

of the economic crash over America,

was the

sold the last of the narrow gauge

transferred

her day, was leased to the Colorado

was completed.

One has

537, that grand old hog that had seen so

offi-

ordered the iron taken from the roadbed, a

job that stretched through two

In the spring of 1930 the Burhngton took

the

Fort Pierre was abandoned in 1930,

so too

was the Deadwood Central by application of & Quincy to the Interstate Commerce Commission. Trucks were doing the job that had been handled by the narrow gauge lines.

shops, but she

the Chicago, Burlington

No. 6, B&MR 495, CBQ 538, the biggest and newest of the whole caboodle, was dismantled

Standard gauge tracks were

Black Hills to bring heavy freight from other parts

One more moment of glory was left for the Deadwood Central. In 1948 the National Railroad

narrow gauges had served

Fair was held in Chicago and one of the attractions

of the nation, but the

still

not forgotten.

at Eola, Illinois in

necessary in the

December 1930.

ENGINE 537 ABOVE FANTAIL BRIDGE on one leg of wye, 1910. Engineer in cab, E. A. Johnston; fireman, Tom Fowler. From left to right in front of engine, section boss Nelson; brakeman Art Pryor; brakeman Billie Vaugn, conductor Hogland. The boy, Snules Ellis, lived at the other end of the wye. In spite of improvements made in the handling of materials, the Q closed the Nevada Gulch line in 1910, and four years later pulled up the Fantail Gulch line. They junked the Nevada Gulch rails in 1917 to sell for scrap iron.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

was a narrow gauge track running around the fairtitle of the Deadwood-Central City Flyer. The pamphlet describing the railroad's operation admitted that most of the Deadwood-Central City Flyer's equipment served and operated the Colorado & Southern's hne between Denver and Leadville, Colorado, and added that the name of the ride was given in honor of the original Deadwood-Central narrow gauge Hne in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Names given to the engine and cars were names taken from Black Hills history rather than Colorado history the engine and tender being Chief Crazy Horse; the mail-express car, Buffalo

anecdotes.

the coach,

Deadwood Dick;

cars, Sitting Bull,

Oakley and Wild

Hat

Brains, the Brass.

you as warning

on the road that the Brass

this

signal

originated officials of a

wore a big beard. There are signals, pet names and so on were in use in the old days of steam railroading are gradually fading out as the new power and

railroad

generally

thousands of that that

signs,

signals take over.

Engineer

— Hogger, boghead, eagle

eye.

—Tallow Brakeman — Shack, — your job on To Caboose —Cabin, crummy, doghouse, van United Canada than used more work — Tie your run To Fireman

pot, fireboy.

brakie.

Hickok; only the office car

a railroad

quit

parts

of the country.

The Deadwood Central

them

on your train (Brass Hat being an you go through signs of stroking a long

When

beard.

the five excursion

name Annie Oakley from other

like to give

riding

official)

being named Leadville for the Colorado mining days, and the

— The

Conductor

Calamity Jane, Poker Alice, Annie Bill

would

sign to other crews out

—

Bill;

he wrote them

grounds under the

42 years, built nearly 26 miles of track, and left memories for railroad men of those days that were cherished for the rest of their lives. Who can ask for more? In answer to a request for help, Jim Bullard has given us a number of definitions of terms and old lasted

(van

the

States).

or day's

up.

finish

Pull the pin.

couple up cars or couple engine on train

Tic 'em together.

2-6-0 and 0-6-0

— That's

the system every rail-

United States, Canada and Mexico have of classifying the general wheel arrangement of road

in the

steam engines.

The

first

figure

represents

number

pony truck and

of wheels in

the

pony truck

the

small truck under pilot or front end of engine, second

number of drive wheels and third set represents number of wheels in truck

set of figures is

of figures

under cab of engine, and

many do

under cab so there you find so 2-6-0

not have a truck

last set of figures

—

one wheel on each side of pony truck,

which makes your

then 3 drivers on each side

which makes your

or 2-6-0, and on your 0-6-0

that would be a switch engine as they never have pony trucks or truck under cab, so 0-6-0 would be an engine with 3 drivers on each side. Link and Pin Coupler In the early days of narrow gauge in the Black Hills they were all link and pin and on standard gauge also, and all over the United States and Canada for that matter. The automatic coupler now in the United States went

—

AROUND

1906, ENGINE 537, wooden ore cars ahead of record of the Deadwood Central railroad equipment on hand June 30, 1917, shows more ore cars than any other one type of car. Only one passenger car was in use

engine.

into effect in 1893, but certain cars in certain kinds

work were exempted. Cars

that

were not

on the narrow gauge

line

of the electric trolleys were

inter-

for that year, though still

all

three

in use.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

changed with other railroads were OK with link and pin and as far as I ever knew none of the narrow gauge cars in the Hills were interchanged with other roads, but

by 1903 the

had got

this far

along

anytime old Unk and pin couphng was pulled out

round house to make you a small round pin of steel would last and of course the smaller the pin

damaged so a new one was necessary, or car was being rebuilt, then they slapped in a new autoor

matic coupler with they kept that

was automatic but were all automatic.

A about

link weighs five.

Unk

Janny knuckle.

probably

till

all their

that

the easier

suppose

was

drop through the old hnk when

they slammed together.

rolhng stock

can only guess as to when they

Very easy to leave some hand along with that

of your fingers or your whole

old cast iron link, and in very cold weather they

would sometimes freeze to your big heavy mittens and if you had mittens laced up tight you could not get your hands out of the mitten so we learned to

about ten pounds, and the pin is

about a foot long and the pin

about ten to twelve inches. mostly on cars, but

Flat pins were used

when you coupled engine

car you always used round pin on engine and

leave our mittens loose so

we could

get our

hands

free.

you were wise to the troubles of link and pin couplings you hung on to that small round engine pin Uke it was your last dime and three weeks to pay day. Sometimes you got a friendly blacksmith at the

have a link and round coupling pin. Took them

out of a

Rock

Island

July 1904.

Dummy

FANTAIL BRIDGE

on the Black Hills & Fort Pierre line. Central line to Terry Gulch and Nevada Gulch passed under bridge, with built in beneath. The big years of the mining activities in the hills were during the years of the B&MR managership. Necessarily, mines being what they are, production began to go down when ore veins were exhausted, and the Q took over the job of running the railroads at a time when the smaller mines were skidding. The Fantail bridge on Fantail Gulch was rebuilt to use a coal chute from the BH&FP track on top to the track that ran under the bridge. It was a perfect setup, not entailing any great expense and being of service to both lines. Photo shows bridge gang building or repairing coal chutes to serve the narrow gauge engines on tracks below, sometime after 1902. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

Deadwood

Hose

bunk car

—When

at Crest, Missouri,

you have a weak draw

bar and coupler stretches out, the regular

air

hose

coupling between the bad order and car next to it

come

liable to

set the air or

bad

leak.

two, and that of course will

may stretch- air hose until you have When you couple narrow gauge and it

gauge cars together with

standard

three

link

crooked bar you have to use a dummy as regular hose will not reach that far. Dummys were in various

and when the Brains

lengths,

told the rear Brakie,

dummy

go back to the crummy and get a short

meant the

shortest, generally

inches long.

he wanted a medium

medium, and

said

about twelve to

fifteen

dummy

he needed a long one that meant

had stored in caboose, probably around eighteen inches long, so every rear brakie tried to keep at least two of each length on hand, and those dummys were a lot of grief to all conthe longest they

THE TROLLEY CAR

CAFE IN LEAD, S. Dakota, 1959. Until 1963 two of the three trolleys still existed, rooted firmly to the ground as cafes in Lead and Dead wood and each known appropriately as the Trolley Car Cafe. Lead's Trolley Car Cafe was one half block off Main Street on old Wall Street just below Lead's First National Bank. Photo by Fielder

When you were on

a job where you handled and standard stuff it was double trouble. In the early 1900 era there were a lot of cars that had not been equipped with air and they had to be switched to rear of train or "drag." We

cerned.

narrow gauge

called a non-air car a "Jack."

Crooked bar

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;When you take narrow gauge and

standard gauge cars together, you have to use a

crooked bar, or a combination three link to couple the two different gauges, as there

about one foot

in the

gauge.

Our

a difference of

engines were

all

equipped with three places on front and rear end so

we could do crooked bar.

this I

on engine without three

mean on narrow gauge

standard gauge engines.

THE TROLLEY CAR CAFE IN DEAD WOOD,

Dakota.

Deadwood's Trolley Car Cafe in the main business district on Main Street was torn down in June 1963. Railroad records show that trolley 12150, formerly Deadwood Central No. 10, and trolley 12151, formerly Deadwood Central No. 11, were both dismantled at Deadwood December 1926, and the bodies sold locally to be used as cafes. The third trolley, 12152, formerly Deadwood Central No. 1926, and 12, was dismantled at Aurora, Illinois, July

was one of our

lems when we handled both gauges

links or

engines, not real prob-

in train as

yard

1959.

switching.

Brake Clubs

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Some

say the Winchester tamed

the west, others claim the Colt .45 did the job.

leave

old

we made

to the historians, but

hardwood brake club

on the narrow gauge railroads

presumably scrapped.

Photo by Fielder

many It

Let's

claim that the good railroading possible in

the Black Hills

years ago.

was up

have

to each

right

one of us

to get

our clubs and

we were working. were made from pick han-

with us while

Most of our brake clubs had been used by our section men. With long use, the big end that fitted inside the metal got shattered so the pick would not stay on the handle. Most section crews knew that was just what the brakemen needed for their clubs and they would saw off the big end and let us have them, or we would pick them up out of their scrap pile and have the big end sawed off at shops in Deadwood. Sometimes when your club broke or got lost and we had dles that

end and could not get a saw, we on the rail and let some loaded cars

to cut off the big

would hold

GOLDEN REWARD CHLORINATION MILL

and improved cyanide, capacity 150 tons per day. The cyanide & D. smelter became nothing more than a Dead-

process was substituted for the smelter process, and the D.

wood landmark. Photo by Locke and Peterson, courtesy of Paul Talley

run over the big end and then trim

up a

bit

with

a pocket knife.

did not have any caboose

ore run, so

many

when we

got in

different places.

the

we would

Ruby Basin

yard.

When no snow was on

were here and there

tie

all

car.

in the

you

over the

you did that when snow covered the ground,

many

Notice the brake wheel on top of every freight

the

your tracks in the snow would give some one a

chance to find your club, so

club.

hide our clubs

ground we generally stuck them under a pile of old ties that

and it taught one to tie 'em down with a more gradual twist to the brake wheel with your

that brake,

times

we took

them along with our old oil burning lantern to the rooming house or home so we would be sure to have it for use in the morning when we went to work. There was always some other brakeman or yard switchman in the Deadwood yard looking for a brake club the easy way, and while you might have some sort of mark cut in your club it could be rubbed out with a file or rasp so you could not really tell if it was yours or not. These pick and sledge hammer handles were always from the best of hardwood, usually hickory or white oak about three feet long. You could saw it off to fit your needs and get you the best leverage when you swung your weight on the club. Every one was his own judge of his brake club, and everybody who used them soon found out that the good old club was the most important part of their equipment and that you had to use some good judgment while you were "tieing 'em down." Everytime you broke a brake by a heavy swing you were done with

There are

little

cross bars in every brake wheel,

stick your club in between cross bars and set brake by putting your weight behind the club and

twisting brake staff,

which

in turn

winds up brake

chain at bottom end of brake staff and that chain pulls lever

connected to brake shoes, applying the

power you use against car wheels.

GOLD RUN GULCH IN modern highway

1958

just

below Lead, showing

instead of trolley tracks. To facilitate matters in getting freight to Lead, the line from Kirk to the Whitetail Switch and on to the Black Hills & Fort Pierre transfer track was three-railed in 1927 to permit the operation of standard gauge freight into Lead from Deadwood and they pried the trolley tracks out of the gulch, to be used no longer. Photo by Fielder

WORKMEN

dismantled Lead's Trolley Car Cafe in Februlast of the trolley cars that ran up and down Gulch for the Deadwood Central and Burlington

ary 1964, the

Gold Run railroads.

Photo by courtesy of Seaton Publishing Company

NARROW GAUGE LOCOMOTIVES FOR THE DEADWOOD CENTRAL RAILROAD Original

Cost

BScMR

No.

When New

No.

2 3

4 5

$10,500 9,220

500 499 498 497 496 495

CB&Q Date

No.

Date

539 535

1-05

Baldwin

3-05

Baldwin

H.K.Porter

9-01 9-01 9-01

9-01 9-01

9-01

Porter

537 538

3-05

Baldwin

1-05

Baldwin

Shop No.

Date

Builder

1889 1884 1891 1879 1896 1900

1008

Type

Qass

Gauge

0-6-0 2-6-0

11633

350 14792 17795

2-8-0 10-22-E 2-6-0 2-8-0 2-8-0

36" 36" 36" 36" 36" 36"

Disposition and dates, other notes: 1,

BMR

May 1903. Officially called the "Deadwood," unofficially the "Little and Deadwood in Gold Run Gulch. Wrecked in the flood of 1890 down Gold Run Gulch, in 1891 collision, in 1892 runaway. Used as passenger locomotive, freight, switching. Runaway box car ran into her 12-29-99. Shipped by rail to Elkhorn station at Whitewood, hauled ten miles from Whitewood to Deadwood by Northwestern Transportation Company by mule or ox team, reassembled in Deadwood for initial trip February 26, 1889. Rebuilt from a 0-6-07 to a 0-6-0 with a tender December 500. Sold to Fitzhugh Company, Betsy," first engine to run between Lead

1899.

CBQ

539. Dismantled August 1913 Rebuilt from 2-6-0 to 0-6-0 type. Was Denver, Utah & 499, Pacific number 6 from 1884 to 1891, when it was sold to Deadwood Central. Officially called the "Lead City," unofficially the "Bridget" and then the "Sitting Bull." Used mainly in the Ruby Basin area for ore and mine materials, occasionally as passenger engine in Gold Run Gulch. First run was January 21, 1891. Blew out cylinder head February 3, 1891. repaired, and February 11 wrecked. Out of commission for several weeks. Newspaper reports its weight as 72,000 pounds which does not agree with weight statistics in table. files say scrapped 1910. Originally built as a 2-6-0, but later rebuilt into a 0-6-0.

CBQ 3,

BMR

CBQ

535. Dismantled 1910. Officially called the "Ruby Basin." First run March 1. 1891. 498, as freight engine in Ruby Basin area. Had minor mishaps, overturned below Mogul shaft in 1902. paper reports its weight as 65,000 pounds, which differs from the weight statistics in table.

Dismantled June 1903. This locomotive was originally built for the Boston & Colorado Smelting located at Argo, Colorado. It had 12x16 inch cylinders. In the early 1880's all switchmg at this smelter was being done by the Denver, Utah & Pacific Railroad. The locomotive became the DU&P No. 3 in 1889, and in 1894 was sold to Deadwood Central, who renumbered it No. 4. It was rebuilt into a 0-6-0 by 1902. It was used mainly for freight. BMR 496, CBQ 537. Leased to the C&S in 1930, returned March 1939. dismantled by CBQ in Denver, August 26. 1939. Number plate given to Jim Builard when the engine was dismantled. The bell is now owned by Mr. Downey. Best of the lot as a worker. Was engine in the Baschky-Brown wreck, 1927, afterwards remodeled. Last engine to be scrapped. 497.

Company which was

Used News-

BMR

495,

CBQ

538. Dismantled by

CBQ

at Eola, Illinois,

December 1930.

THE BELL ON THE

537 ENGINE. The bell and the two marker lights of Locomotive 537 were removed by Ralph Budd, President of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, for M. C. Poor, President and General Manager of the Broken Axel and Western R.R., who planned to present the historical items to the Chicago Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in the fall of 1939. The bell is now owned by Mr. Downey of the Allbright-Nell Construction Company. As far as is known, these parts of 537, famous old mountain hog of the Black Hills narrow gauge lines, are all that are left of any of the narrow gauge locomotives used by the Burlington lines in front

the Black Hills.

Photo by courtesy of Richard Karshnik

DIMENSIONAL STATISTICS DEAD WOOD CENTRAL LOCOMOTIVES, NARROW GAUGE No.

No. 2

DC No. BMR 500 1

CyUnders Length of Firebox Width of Firebox

12x18

Diam. of Boiler Steam Pressure Firebox Heating Size of Flues

Wt. on Drivers Wt. on Truck Total Wt. Engine

34,000

sq.

ft.

in.

14x20 72

in.

140

lbs.

sq.

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

ft.

BMR 495

496 537

CBQ

sq. 21/4

108

8 1/2

CBQ

lbs.

17x20 56 50 59 180

ft.

in. in. in. in.

in.

ft.

in. in. in. in.

lbs.

sq.

ft.

in.

180

123

lOVi

538

in.

ft.

in.

in. in.

52,700 10,200

lbs.

87,400

lbs.

9,800

lbs.

98,400 11,000

lbs.

62,900

lbs.

97,200

lbs.

109,400

lbs.

64,900

lbs.

126,500

lbs.

144,300

lbs.

92,900 13,300

lbs.

1,050

lbs.

20,800

lbs.

23,250

lbs.

49,000 lbs.

lbs.

17x20 54 42 56 160

535

in.

130

No. of Flues

Length of Flues Diam. of Drivers

12x16

CBQ

Surface

BMR

CBQ

No. 6

No. 4 BMR 497

BMR 498

14x18 75 23 46 140

in.

No.

BMR 499 539

36"

49,000

lbs.

Total Wt. Engine

and Tender Tractive Effort

Tender, Water Cap'y, Gals.

800

1,240

1,700

2,000

^Va

Coal Cap'y, Tons Length out to out including Tender

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

ft.

3 in.

Ct)e

DtdDtuooD Central UailroaD The Dead wood CcntrHl Railroad rompany.

Narrow rmoM Plama

K*Uj{c -- 3 feet.

TO (Kxtenxioni) (Extenaioni)

Kirk WhiteUil Switch

4 Kxten.vion^) Whiletail Switch

Beyond B. F P. R R. Carthage WhiteUil Switch up Nevada Gulch Extenition of above Fantail Switch

Carthage

line

cou rurrtD January, 1889. Novemt*r. 18b9. September, 1>02. September, IMTl.

182

May,

1H91.

J»7 .70

May. May, May.

IML

2.44 .34

Welcome

1.66

lt»«. 1N91.

September, 18tS.

May,

lh>«l.

north fork of WhiteUil Cre«k Exten!<ion of above Galena and bejrond Galena Junction

(^**r»

1.17 .14 .09 .60

MIUCACC

I.«ad ritjr

.«7

.OS

€36

November, 18»S. November. 1898. January. 1M2.

IIM

THIKD BAIL

Deadwood

Finale wood

•

tsBg\twitod to Deadwood. 8 mOet. The Ant construction on this line was ia ISM from Daadwood Ut Ijt^d City, via Plunui, as a narrow K»ug» read. In 1890 the Graad It-land and Wyomiac Central pnrchased tha line from Enflcwnnd to Deadwood. the D. C. rewrvinc the riffkt rifkt to lay a third rmJ. idwood to Kirk in 1891. and Thu third rati was laid from Dca^ Kirk to Enrlcwood about 1905.

i—tm^

1921, from Corporate History compiled by CB&Q Railroad. Corporate History of the Deadwood Central in 1921. The 1.17 miles from Pluma to Lead City was completed January, 1889, and additional construction brought it finally to a total of 17.68 miles, the last building occurring in 1902. Some lines had been abandoned by 1921, but they were still using 15.97 miles in and around the gulches. Used by permission of Chicago, Burlington & Qitincy Railroad

THE DEADWOOD CENTRAL RAILROAD MAP The Burlington

offices issued a

Chapter TKree

THE BURLINGTON LINES IN THE BLACK HILLS 1888-1897, the

Grand

Island 8C

Wyoming

Central

In order to understand the intricacies of railroad terminology in the Black Hills, one must

first

& Quincy was the parent company back of the Burlingbranch hue, Grand Island & Wyoming Central. The CB&Q

accept the fact that the Chicago Burlington

ton & Missouri River Railroad and the was rapidly pushing westward from Chicago in the nineteenth century, both by acquisition of smaller Hues and by building its own rails further west. Its railroad line west of the Mississippi river was known for a number of years as the Burlington & Missouri River to differentiate it from the network east of the river, and though it was under an independent set of directors for a while, it was essentially CB&Q property. The B&MR stretched first across the lower state line country of Nebraska and Kansas to reach Denver, then tentatively pointed a finger across central and northern Nebraska to angle in the direction of Wyoming. From Grand Island on the Piatt river in Nebraska, the Grand Island & Wyoming Central became a branch line leased to the B&MR, building always west and northwest until in 1889 it was the logical railroad to go into the Black Hills, that land of mines which had been crying for outside railroad connections since the first newspaper printed

its first

editorial.

Ironically enough,

northward into the

when

hills,

the

Grand Island & Wyoming Central began

driving

they were already outflanked by the Fremont, Elkhorn

its

shining steel

Missouri Valley

which had skirted around the edge of the Black Hills since 1885 and had reached Whitewood, ten miles from Deadwood. by 1887. The Elkhorn circled the hills, true enough. The Grand Island & Wyoming Central proposed to go directly into the hills, cross their highest points, get the mining traffic by tapping the mines themselves. With admirable abandon it proceeded to railroad

so.

The Black a cold wintr\

Hills Weekly Times readers first heard of the imminent arrival of Burlington morning of December 1, 1888 when the Times reporter noted:

"No doubt can

B&M

rails

contemplates an extension of its Hne to the Several of the Gillette survey party were in the city The company has filed its articles of incorporation through the clerk of Fall yesterday. River county, and its right-of-way man. Castor, is north of Alliance proceeding in this direction, while a large force of graders is at work not far in his rear. The road will cross the Elkhorn at Crawford. 23 miles west of Chadron; will reach Custer via Red Canyon, thence to Lead and Deadwood by one of the three routes recently platted by Mr. Gillette, longer exist that the

Hills at the earliest possible .

moment.

tapping en route the great Hamey tin belt and the extensive mineral districts of the cenA grading outfit with 400 mules tral Hills. unloaded at Alliance last Friday."

Once pushing north they stopped

"At the dinner table the Times men learned that Ten Mile Ranch has been christened Englewood; that it will be a regular station, at which an agent will be placed and at which water tanks are to be erected. Pennington will be known in railroad circles as Kirk."

for nothing,

though they had plenty of problems. The Deadwood its narrow gauge up the from Deadwood to Pluma, and owned the right-of-way to Englewood. Before the GIÂŤ&WC ever reached that far, negotiations were begun to buy that right-of-way from the Deadwood Central. The Times was full of railroad news in 1890, indicating a hot race between the Burlington (from the south and Edgemont) and the Elkhom, from the south too but coming into the hills toward Dead-

Central was already running

The

best valley

be "first"

against the

Elkhom

with

railroad.

right

regularly

summer

1890

& Wvoming

line,

Both worked

side

side,

trestles

Hills history.

A line

spur of particular note was the Spearfish high

which gained

its

own brand

of fame.

went

from Englewood to Spearfish, and from Spearfish to Englewood. Only one train operated at a time on Old railroaders its mileage, but one was enough. who worked the line remember with a chuckle in their throats that the Spearfish Line, as it was immediately called, was the only railroad in the world on which the freight cars had to be chained to the siding to keep them from coming home by themselves. At the top of Crown Hill the siding was equipped

only

between Deadwood and Englewood over which the DC wished to extend a third rail anyway. deal benefited both railroads.

From

Hill City they headed for Englewood, working through the winter, and toward the end of January the Grand Island & Wyoming Central rolled rails into

impossible to ignore the Bur-

the last analysis, be completely separated in Black

that portion

standard gauge

and through the same cuts in the mountains. The standard gauge supplemented the narrow gauge activity, extended its usefulness, backed it financially. Men worked on standard and narrow rails indiscriminately. Railroad trains were made up of both standard and narrow gauge equipment hooked together in one long lopsided train. They cannot, in

first

The events

train.

over some of the same tracks, over the same

This sale did not include the entire

days of that section.

May

Central secures absolute title to all property, franchise and rights of the from a point near the Ten Mile ranch, to the Deadwood reduction works, the receiving the right to lay a third rail and operate its narrow gauge over the main hne in connection with its radiating system." .

and the

train,

lington standard gauges of the pioneer railroading

GI&WC

Deadwood.

one and a half column of newsprint in the Times on January 25, 1891 tells of the joy of Dead-

wood

passenger

In a history of early narrow gauge railroads in

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

its

passenger

slackened.

"By far the most important proceeding of the year is briefly noted in the hst of real estate transfers filed for record in another column the sale of the Deadwood Central

The

first

scheduled

welcome. The first scheduled passenger was pulled by B&M engine 262 with engineer C. H. Rockey and conductor T. A. O'Connor, but by the time that third "first" train got to town Deadwood's enthusiasm for celebrating had considerably

issue:

to the Grand Island for 575,000, the

Deadwood on

into

train

GI&WC its

first train

wood's

the legal angles

between the Deadwood Central and the were completed, and the Times reported in 17,

the actual

rails,

the Black Hills

the beginning of

was a compli-

train

were further confused by a Dakota blizzard in the hills which stalled the first passenger train by 36 hours and considerably cooled the ardor of Dead-

building.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

B&M

conductor; the

charges

various

Both kept

B&M

drawn by locomotive No. 82, with W. M. Burnhart as engineer and Jack S. Sterling the

wood from Whitewood ten miles north to reach that town first. The Burhngton had the greater distance to travel but it was pushing with all it had. To confuse the issue in their favor temporarily, the Grand Island & Wyoming Central got an injunction against the Elkhom to keep them from condemning rightof-way over certain lands,

arrival of the first

cated affair, in that at least three trains claimed to

with twelve foot chains of one inch all

B&M

the time

and fastened

two

steel, left there

ties.

The hogger

coming to that city, notes the and ends with the account of a dinner given by B&M railroad officials for Times reporters in which certain topographical designations

would spot the car over the chains, the brakie would

are explained:

rolled

the

laying of the final

put the chain around the axle and switch lock the

rail,

chain together, locking got

with a key.

away from that siding by itself all the way to the bottom at

If a it

car ever

would have

Spearfish, pro-

B&MR CAMP

(Grand Island and Wyoming Central Railroad) near Edgemont while building the GI&WC tracks toward Deadwood. Black Hills Weekly Times, Dec. 1, 1886: "The Burlington is in the field with a large force of graders pushing north from Alliance. An 100 The company mile contract was recently let, which will take the track to the mouth of Red Canyon. advances under the name of the Grand Island and Wyoming Central." Photo by courtesy of Mrs. James O'Hara .

viding

could have kept on the track.

reminded the

men

to chain the cars

...

big sign it

was

necessary, not a comic, thing to do.

Grand Island & Wyoming Cenproud of its accomplishment over the Spearfish Line. It seems only fair at this time Nevertheless, the

was

tral

from Hot Springs to Portland, 2,978 feet, or nearly three-fifths of a mile. The drop from Pordand to Spearfish is 2,778 feet and the distance is but twenty-five miles. "Between Englewood and Portland, the

—

justifiably

them room to speak for themselves. An titled "The Black Hills of South Dakota" was published by the Burlington Route that

early

give

Cbr dtano JilanO ano iapomim Crnicdl n«ilroaD

brochure

within a very few years of the completion of the

For sheer artistry of description, no author, and we quote in part:

Spearfish Line.

need bow to

"The Spearfish already

made

particular one cally,

Does one who has Canyon trips find this

trip!

other still

worth while?

Emphati-

he does!

a sort of ferris wheel performance. is hfted to Portland, then lowered to Spearfish and there is never a moment when he has to be told whether it is upward or downward he is going. The difference is perfectly apparent. The lift from Deadwood to Portland is perpendicularly 1,886 feet, or more than a third of a mile; "It

The passenger

X/ ^rL^

1921,

& Wyoming

Central Railroad map.

Corporate History issued by

town of Edgemont can be

CB&Q.

The

I f

i i

NKBHASIW.

Th« Grand

THE GRAND ISLAND

r i ^

Wyominr

id 4k

noM

KAIN UNK Grand Uland

little

said to be the southernmost edge

Ravenna

31.20

Anil«7 Broken Bow

.12.10

AnMlmo

of the Black Hills, hence its name. From Edgemont one can go north or east and hit the hills within a short time, and thereafter one is in the Black Hills until he can again find an outer edge on the far side of that rolling mountainous country. Map by courtesy of Chicago, Burlitigton & Qitincy Railroad

Whitman Alliance

Keminciord Maraland Crawford

i\.

Line

KM 14.10

Hill Cilr

».M \hM

I>tadwosd

4«.M

Sprino

(lot

Encl«««od

^pearnah Keyatone Total

June M. im«. Aurut 12, IBM. Auiput2«, in«. Septeffiliar 1*.

Ma;

30, IWT. Fcbroary 3, 18W.

A or

It, II

\hM

Marietu

MlnnaliallU

i».;o

tt.43 30.27

Suu

Englewood

16 20 21 19 W..11 89.60

Hat Crwk

Minnekahu Ciuur

liUI Citj

Central Ratln>ad Corapanj OaU] HILCAUE

12.4a 3I.«I ».to

Siptliiliae

I*, IMI. OetsterM. IH*.

Oetabar

It, \tm. 24, IW*. r«, IM*. Hiiirtii 4, xmt. Pefcemr; I. IIWI. JalyS. "•. DiiiMtir II. mvx. FaknuT », IfM. !

MLM

Deadwood. 8 mflaa. eonatnjrtion of tfcia line

wai kv tka Dulaiil OMtnd ti 1«M from Daa4wood u> Lead Clt;, ria Pliwa. la 1M« Ma Cmipany pwekaaad tka line tram Ea(4ewoa4 to Dull mt, dn O. C reaemnff the rtflll t* lay a tJitrd rail Till. thlH raU waa Uld tnm Daadwwl M Ib 1»I, aad tnm rk to EncWwcod atnat IMi,

The Arn

l^'^O. The Gl&WC ^'^^ an^kd a track CB8CQ BRIDGE ACROSS SHEEP CANYON under construction, around of South Dakota through corner small across a line Dakota from Ardmore on the Nebraska-South done ^^^ m November 1889 Havmg stretch that completmg line, state to Dewey on the Wyoming-South Dakota summer. next the Edgemont from north trek the started so. they rested their men for the winter then

Photo hy courtesy of Roger

O Keefe

miles of the upward journey, the cUmb 828 feet. It is doubtful if there is another commercial Hne in the country as steep. On a main line forty feet to the mile is grade enough to start conversation in the coaches and moisture in the cab. Imagine, then, what

"Mr.

last six

when

the pitch

one hundred

200

generally

feet to the mile, often

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and where

more than more than

there are 375 curves in 31 Uneal miles, or a curve for every 436 feet. ride over such a line as that is worthwhile. It is exciting enough for even the boldest, feet

enough for even the

With the iron horse and

its

rails,

Jim BuUard remembered those Deadwood, and commented:

the Bur-

many of its own men from other active W. W. Johnston was the first Burlington

traffic

representative

the

Black HiUs

territory,

Not

holding that position from the time the line reached

Deadwood

until

894.

that the Burlington Railroad

protecting

its

Johnston had the experience of seeing a new train in a pulsing frontier community, and the problems that went with it. Deadwood was becoming

couldn't be done.

more and more a

railroad town, but

still

had the

earmarks of a high-stepping mining camp as well. copy remains of a letter dated August 29, 1893, from W. W. Johnston, Assistant General Freight Agent, Deadwood, South Dakota, to his General

Passenger Agent,

which reads

Francis, of

as follows

Omaha, Nebraska,

early

days of

"Knowing the Gem Theatre from personal visits there in 1902 and 1903, I am sure that W. W. Johnston had very strong doubts about putting the BurUngton Railroad ad on the drop curtain of the old Gem with its western reputation that anything goes at the Gem, and its twenty-five to thirty lady dancers."

lington used areas.

Gem

Theatre changing new performance. Want to advertise on new drop curtain, $15.00 for space. Don't think very much of it. Advise. W. W. Johnston, Assistant General Freight Agent."

nerviest."

wide

Francis, General Passenger Agent,

hands, will soon open with

thrilling

Omaha, Nebraska:

men.

had any ideas

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

men from bad influences that Deadwood catered to its railroad

The Bodega bar paid

railroaders 25c for the

pay checks, knowing that good share of the pay check would go into its tills before the fireboys, shacks and hoggers would leave the premises. The Bodega got its quarters back

privilege of cashing their

with interest.

Dan Donegan came in with the Burlington, too. He had lost a leg in 1888 while working for the Burlington elsewhere,

but had managed to learn

THE RAILS WERE LAID FROM EDGEMONT TO MINNEKAHTA

(a stop between Hot Springs and Custer) by August 24, 1890. They reached Custer on October 6, Hill City less than a month later on November 4, and worked toward Englewood. This was no mean achievement. The rails crossed considerable mountainous terrain and directly through the center of the hills, past towering Harney Peak and into the rugged northern hills.

Photo by W. B. Perkins, by courtesy of Mrs. Marion Lutey

THE HOLY TERROR mines.

Keystone

and

Keystone,

B&M

1900, the year when the railroad was built into Keystone. The Holy Terror hoist above on the left, the Keystone mill in the rear on the right.

Having the

reached

Grand

started.

Deadwood,

Island was only well short spur was ex-

tended from Minnekahta to Hot Springs, 12.43 miles, 1891; and from Hill

in July City to Keystone on February 25, 1900, a distance of 9.50 miles.

Photo by Cross, courtesy of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

telegraphy and was transferred to the Hill City station first as telegrapher then as station agent.

moved

to the

end of the

line in Spearfish,

the Spearfish depot over the mountain.

Later

running put

a total of 55 years on the railroad.

1894 James L. Bentley succeeded W. W.

Johnston as Burlington

traffic representative in the

Black Hills territory to remain the next 39 years.

the

one spot for

boom years of railroading in the Black Hills. Thomas O'Keefe was one of the earliest rail-

roaders on the Spearfish at

in that

His was the opportunity of seeing

Elmore

in Spearfish

line,

canyon

894.

family lived at Elmore for nine years,

Portland (now Trojan)

1903,

still

working for the

Of his ten children, three sons. Harry, and Roger followed their father in

Burlington Route. Bill,

Foreman The O'Keefe then moved to

being Section

SPEARHSH CANYON,

miles railroad bend to gain 800 feet. Black Hills, S. Dakota, on the Grand Island & Wyoming Central Railroad. The spur that

more talk and more wonder than any other was this one over the mountain from Englewood to Spearfish in 1893, 31.91 miles of sheer up and down hill climbing. Photo by courtesy of caused

Mrs. Cedric Gust

working for the railroads. His son, Roger, was born in 1901 at the Elmore station house, and lived with railroads until he retired from active work fifty-two

Thomas moved his family to Lead in 1919 to stay five years there, then to Hot Springs where he retired in 1931. Roger had to wait until he was fifteen years old years later.

before he could

work

for the railroad himself, but

he writes of those early days when the family was

which shows the tug then: on him even the railroads had living in

Trojan

in a vein

that

"I remember as a kid, probably sometime between 1910 and 1915, walking down from Trojan to see a narrow gauge engine tipped over somewhere in lower Nevada Gulch as a result of a runaway."

Roger O'Keefe worked

as a track laborer for

B&M TRAIN on about

1908.

Spearfish line, railroad

Same

track shows faintly in

canyon

below.

"A little farther on he sees beneath him three sections of the very track he is following. The lowest is 1,300 feet under the level of the rails over which his car is moving. The descent is accomplished by seven full miles of zig-zagging back and forth along the steep hill sides." Photo by courtesy of Mrs. Marion Lutey

the Burlington at Trojan in the

summer

then switched his allegiance to the Chicago

Western the next year laborer.

again,

work again

of 1915,

& North a

track

In 1917 he went back to the Burlington

and signed on as a brakeman at Alliance, He was to stay on the steel tracks until

Nebraska.

1953 after having worked as secbrakeman, conductor and train master for the Burlington. He was promoted to conductor in 1935 and worked in that capacity for some years until he became train master. Now living in Bremerton, Washington, Roger his retirement in

tion hand,

JUST BELOW SECTION HOUSE AT PORTLAND (now Trojan) around 1915. Calvert switch is noteworthy, none now in existence. To throw the switch you had to insert switch key, pull up ball, throw switch and push down

ball before

key could be removed.

The Grand Island & Wyoming Central high line went through Terry, a mining town of no small proportions in 1893, reached the Bald Mountain properties at Portland, paused at Crown Hill to let off its freight for the highest mines in the Black Hills, then slid down the other side of the mountain in a spiraling bunch of curves to get to the bottom of Spearfish Canyon and wander down the gulch beside Spearfish Creek past Maurice to end finally at Spearfish in the foothills.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

O'Keefe has a fine collection of early railroading pictures of Black Hills narrow and standard gauge railroads, many of which he says were given to him

and 32 years after he left Portland for Alliance he checked the men he knew were working in 1917 out of Deadwood on one of his 1903 working time

by Mrs. William Broich, Spearfish, S. Dakota, a Art Eckern, early day Burlington engineer. He has loaned the pictures and valuable old time

tables to establish their continued service in the hills.

and working time tables with signatures of men in the early 1900's, and given limitless time in answering letters and queries regarding his collection of records and his own memories.

neers

sister of

table schedules

He knew

railroad

men

all

over the Black Hills,

that

1903

Hst,

29 were

still

working for the

out of Deadwood, including conductors and engiJ.

N. Andrews, W. E. Cotant, N. E. Johnson,

Jack Knowles, D. McDonald, Bert Ponath, O. R.

Reimer, E. W.

Stewart,

Fred L. Skalinder, Eric

Skalinder, A. D. Snow, E. E. Bennett, G. F. Clark,

W. Dye, Bert Hutton,

Houser, Frank Herron,

;.o>-

APPROACH TO SPEARFISH CANYON

on the Grand Island & Wyoming Central, Spearfish high line, 1900. bewilderment changes to a half-reverie. Imagination lends a subtle aid. For miles and miles the palaces of ancient the right of way seems to this pilgrim in the coach but an avenue of ruined majesties In the long succession of gray kings, the monasteries of a mediaeval day, the stronghold of some feudal clan. a million old battlements, stern, bare and scarred, he reads the fantastic history of a million years defending years defiance of the snow, the rain and the winds. It is the Panorama of Dissolution. Nature painted it; its accuracy the pilgrims cannot question." Photo by Detroit Photographic Company, courtesy of Bart Rachetts

"As he advances,

this

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

G. E. Johnson, C. Myers, Hubert

Peters,

George

ity fifty

Shaw,

Sam

Tillett,

Wibray, E. Votersneck, and

In 1897 the Burlington & Missouri River which had been operating the Grand Island & Wyoming Central by lease, bought the entire Hne. After that the Black Hills section was known as the B&M for

rails

tracks

other

with a resounding

down the canyons of the Old railroaders who worked the Black Hills for only a year or two then moved on to railroads and other towns, remember those

Black Hills years on the

SPEARFISH FALLS

B&M

with astonishing clar-

ON THE B&MR. "Both

going and

short spurs on

Deadwood

vigor that echoes today west.

was oper-

and hence the world beyond the Black Hills, he left at 4:45 p.m. daily on No. 44 train, chugging through the mountains in a glory of smoke and cinders through the canyons and granite topped hills to reach Edgemont by 9:35 p.m. It was a little over a four hour ride on the passenger train, though the freights took it more leisurely, one of the freights leaving Edgemont at 8:00 a.m. to reach Deadwood by 6:25 p.m., the others making comparable time. The slow freight didn't bother anyone at first, they being so glad to have any freight at all, but after a while it began to be irksome. A letter dated 1906 indicates definite complaints on the matter:

1897-1904, Burlington &: Missouri River

ran the

B&M

Deadwood Central, the Spearfish its own Grand Island & Wyoming Central to Keystone and Hot Springs, and most of all the high line between Edgemont and Deadwood were all under its management. If one wished to leave Deadwood for Edgemont line,

the next seven or eight years of high railroading ad-

men

The

Fort Pierre, the

venture in the mining camps.

B&M

sixty years later.

ting all the roads in the hills

C. E. WiUs.

The

and

by 1902 except a high mountain stretch run first by the Elkhorn then by the Chicago & North Western. The Black Hills &

Redfern, C. H. Rockey, E. A. Strand, James (Dad)

re-

turning it stops at several little lookouts from which the passengers can see miles and miles of the wonderful Hills scenery. And it has stopped just above and below Spearfish Falls, where from either without or within his car, he may have a splendid view of this gleaming laughing little baby-Niagara, born of the virgin snows and retaining their silvery whiteness." Pilot o by courtesy of Jim Jclbert

"Deadwood, S.D., Jan. 12th, 1906. Mr. B. A. Hutton, Condr., Edgemont. Dear Sir: have got to make a better showing in the

We 101

CBQ BRIDGE ACROSS SHEEP CANYON 6 miles north of Edgemont on Deadwood line around 1900. Bridge later filled in. An early B&M time table dated November 17, 1895, showed trains running from Edgemont

was

to Deadwood twice daily, one freight and one passenger, the freight laying over in Deadwood to return the next day and the passenger returning the same day to Edgemont. The freight. No. 203, left Edgemont at 6:15 a.m., went through Buena Vista and Chilson to Minnekahta by 7:35 a.m. where passengers could pick up a spur to

Hot Springs

at 7:40.

Photo hy courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

matter of over time on our freight trains. are being criticized very sharply on account of the time made. Mr. Phelan is personally

five

one of the

matter and record is being kept of the amount of over time made by each conductor. "With the ten per cent cut in tonnage it certainly looks as though we should be able to make about running time with our freight

watching

hundred other miners when they had a water

break occasioning a severe water shortage that closed mills.

Stall

applied for

work on

the rail-

this

road as a temporary measure and stayed

game

railroad

for

43 years.

Black Hills Burlington farther east

the

He worked on

the

lines until 1902, then

moved

and worked out of DeSoto, Missouri on

"hot shot freight" until he

and we have got to do it. "You must do everything possible to cut

lost a leg in

1942.

trains

He remembers

down

delays at stations. If engineers are spending too much time taking coal and water and cleaning fire, or do not seem to be trying to get over the road, advise me at once. Yours truly, E. S. Jackson."

"I hired out

85 years old

Stall says

he "hired out on the

Burlington Railroad in August 1899 at Deadwood. B. S. Marvin

was Trainmaster Jack Birdsell was ." He had been working in the Homestake gold mine at Lead, and lost his job with Superintendent

worked

in the

on Monday morning to remain on the run two years, but the Superintendent had me taken off to learn the High Line. I was assigned to Riley Swift's car between Edgemont and Deadwood." The next thing he knew, "the Superintendent came to the car and said he wanted me to go to Englewood as yard master. I went along on the caboose, and took charge when we arrived. This was a standard and narrow gauge yard, and on a hill side. Brakes had to be applied on all cars by club to hold them. We had

Bullard telling of his memories of Englewood at the turn of the century.

Tom Bums

1957, wrote to Jim

on Thursday, and was called

Deadwood Friday yards three shifts, then was called to go out on the ore train with night.

old days. Stall,

Black Hills days with obvious

to switch in the yards at

Dozens of stories are told by the B&M men who worked the Black Hills rails in those days. Any time a couple of them could get together, the tales could mount in a growing glow of excitement over the C. L.

his

delight

pilot

bar

together.

102

1-2-3 links to couple some cars The weather was very rough, 25-35

I remember one morning we an incline. My brakeman was inexperienced and I had to make the pilot bar coupling. We broke three before we made the coupling, sure was different than what we have now. "They were a fine lot of men working out of there on the B&M and the Elkhom. The engineer and fireman were Ed Oilman and Jim Beers; conductor, Tom Burns; brakemen, C. L. Stall and Billy Steele. We all got along fine and always were ready to help fire an engine or throw a switch or anything pertaining to trains. I might mention some of the old timers I knew. Conductors Swift,

below had to

zero.

pull

Silk, Hallock; engineers Wamsley, Beers, F. Herron, Oilman and many more; brakemen John Doyle, Steele, Herron. "I worked with many of the men in the Black Hills. We had the battleship lugs on the job between Deadwood and Edgemont

with the firemen. Oilman and Beers. Wamsley was with me on the ore run. We had a lot of fun in the summer time, left at 7 a.m., back at 3 or 4 p.m., and paid $80 a month. That was considered good money then for braking."

BURLINGTON TRAIN

near Nahant, May 30. No. 203 continued through Ivanhoe, Argyle, Loring, Pringle, Mayo, to Custer by 10:00 a.m., on to Berne, Oreville, Hill City, Redfern, Mystic, Rochford. Nahant, Dumont, reaching Englewood by 2:28 p.m. where it could meet the 4:05 p.m. train to Spearfish or go on through Kirk to Pluma and Deadwood by 3:05 p.m. It would lay over until morning, become the No. 204 to head back to Edgemont over the same route, leaving at 7:45 a.m. and arriving back at Edgemont by 5:55 p.m. tunnel 1949.

Photo by

Arthur Johe

was mentioning only a few of the gang worked out of Deadwood "when she was some city, and Calamity Jane and a few others of the old days were still going fairly good; when the Oreen Front was putting on their own kind of a show and the Bodega was the gilded palace where we could get quick action on our Burlington pay checks, and how!" Stall

that

As Roger O'Keefe remembers the town: "When you stop to think that there were probably eighty brakemen and firemen, a large rip track and roundhouse force. Deadwood must have been a rip snorting railroad men working town, aside from the

C&NW

there."

rip snorting town it was, no doubt at all. Oet a few of the railroaders together of that day, and listen to them talk! Remember when Bar Hanna broke both legs when the cars caught him on the rails? Kingpin Phillips, the wild hogger, was running the engine and he demanded action, wanted the tracks cleared all the way to the next town so he could rush Bar

BURLINGTON TRAIN

foot of Kirk

hill,

The passenger left

train

was

lit-

No. 201

faster.

tle

near

June 21, 1949.

Edgemont

passenger daily at 8:25

reached

Minnekahta by

a.m.,

9:11 a.m. to meet the 9:15 passenger there, through the twisty hills to Custer by 10:30, Mystic by 11:57 a.m., reaching Englewood by 1:00 p.m. and Pluma at 1:24 p.m. where passengers could switch to the Deadwood Central train to Lead on its approximate hourly runs be-

tween Lead and Deadwood.

fin-

reaching Deadwood by 1:30 p.m. No. 201 became 202 to take the passengers back to Edgemont, leaving Deadwood at 3:35 p.m. and puffing into Edgemont at 8:12 that evening. ally

The

Minnekahta

Springs

spur,

to 13.2

Hot mile

left Minnekahta daily 7:40 p.m. and 9:15 a.m., to arrive in Hot Springs at 8:20 p.m. and 9:55 a.m., unload its passengers or freight and return to Minnekahta the next morning early enough to meet the

stretch,

Edgemont there

train again, arriving

9:05

a.m.

and 7:30

p.m.

Photo hy

the

doctor.

When

they got to the

in a

way

car.

King put

Bunchgrass Ponath was there,

and between them and the others they made Bar comfortable and set up hospital quarters in that crummy. The railroad men cared for Bar like a baby, and they not only saved his life but they saved his legs. Bar got to walking again after a while, though his legs were always a little stiff after

too,

that.

Charlie

Meyers?

He was

ENGINEER GEORGE REDFERN,

fireman

Bill

OKeefe.

In remembering his boyhood days, Roger "It was a fascinating thing for me to listen to my brother Harry and another brother. Bill, firing out of Deadwood about 1914, when they would come home We lived within a few feet of telling about railroading. the track of the Spearfish line with its regular run and the narrow daily standard gauge ore run together with the gauge trains which ran to Trojan."

around 1915. O'Keefe said,

CNW

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

kind of an

devil, carried a six shooter in his suitcase.

ornery

Nobody

Sometimes he would take out that six shooter when coming down the high line and try to shoot a deer. Called him Cocky Meyers. And Bunchgrass Ponath? His real name was Bert, but we called him Bunchgrass or just Bunch for short. Bunch was a passenger conductor on the high line, started braking on that stretch when he was a young fellow and worked up to conductor. He had a good reputation, honest as they came. Once there was a time when boxcars were being robbed between Lincoln and Moorcroft, Wyoming. This was just off the Black Hills high line, but not too far. The robberies (merchandise and groceries mostly) were traced to the run between Edgemont

ever figured why.

Arthur Johe

town, the

doctor (perish the thought!) was drunk.

Bar

ROUNDHOUSE AT ENGLEWOOD around 1920, situated between the legs of the Y. That High Line was a corker, standard gauge all the way until it reached Deadwood even though it was third railed from Englewood into Deadwood DC

hogs. Englewood was somewhat of a railroad for the center deep in the heart of the Black Hills. The Black Hills & Fort Pierre left Englewood for the timber toward Pied-

The Deadwood Central reached it on from Deadwood. The Spearfish line took off from Englewood for its optimistic climb into the blue. From Englewood south, the rails went to America over the High Line to Edgemont to join the main line of the Burlington Route. A person could go most anywhere from Englewood. Photo by C. Montgomery, courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

mont and Nemo. their

and Moorcroft. Superintendent Freeland put Ponath on that run with George Doran and Joe Selenberger, and they were on that run to Newcastle and back for a month. Finally the railroad detectives caught the thieves.

Yardmen

lifting the stuff right

in the

erintendent Gillette told the

put on that run said,

Newcastle yards were

out of the boxcars.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

men why

Then Sup-

they had been

because Ponath was so honest, he and the other two were bachelors and weren't

likely to

be the ones

who would

use the kind of stuff

being stolen.

Rockey was another engineer on the high Once Rockey ran over two horses near Pringle. Killed them both, threw them "higher than a kite." He didn't mean to do it, they were just there. Rockey was the engineer who brought in the first regular passenger train to Deadwood. Most of the time the trains ran with no incident, but when things were going good that wasn't news. It was the tragedies, the accidents, the kilUngs that made news and were remembered in detail. C. H.

line.

Like the time big John Cooksey, that running ran into the rear end of a freight

son-of-a-gun, at

Loring, near Pringle.

man on Charles

George Doran was brake-

the freight 204, he says, with E. Bennett and

Hageman

the

engineer's

(Oscar) Beebe was conductor. ning

late,

cab.

The 204 was

run-

picking up rock to build the Soldier's

JUST BEFORE BURLINGTON 956 service trip

left on last passenger between Edgemont and Deadwood, picture taken

Deadwood. Left to right: Harry Walters, conductor; Ray Blanchard, fireman; E. A. Johnston, engineer; and Paul Wertenberger, baggage man. The wild young days of Burlington railroading in the Black Hills are quite gone. A standard gauge road still comes into Deadwood, but the last passenger train between Deadwood and Edgemont went out of town in September 1949, and the Burlington passenger depot was torn down shortly thereafter. To the great delight of the wrecking crew $1,200 was found in the walls of the building in greenbacks. A mercantile wholesale truck loading ramp is in the spot formerly occupied by the depot, and the ticket office for the Burlington has been moved to the freight depot on Sherman and Charles Streets. The Traffic Manager's office is at the Franklin Hotel in Deadwood. at

Photo by courtesy of E. A. Johnston

Home

third

Hot

rail

Springs, but

had

to take

a car of

water and coal below Pringle. Oscar and George

had picked up a negro cook known as old Mose up and down the Une, and since Mose was short of cash they let him have a ticket for $2.00 though the regular fare was $3.25. Mose wasn't in the way, he went to sleep in the caboose and kept out of sight.

Just as they were stopping at the rock crusher

they heard Cooksey whisthng out of Pringle a short jump away. Oscar started making a fast switch and Doran ran to wake up old Mose, but before they could get any kind of action Cooksey and his Extra

176 hove into sight going for

all

they were worth.

Doran ran down the track to signal Cooksey to stop, but Cooksey didn't see him. In desperation Doran

DAKOTA

HILL CITY, S. on Burlington line early 1900's. Those high line locomotives were some#4003, thing different than the wood burning hogs of the narrow gauge lines. The boomers called them battleships, and the name was a good one. Those old battleships took a good engineer and two firemen to bring them from Edgemont to Deadwood, one fireman shoveling coal and one swinging the door. Forty or fifty tons of coal were used on a round trip from Edgemont to Deadwood every time they swung through the mountains. Some of them were Mallet compounds, and those who remember say that the Mallets had a distinct sound of their own they were real engines. that announced their coming from half a mile away. You couldn't mistake them

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Photo by courtesy of Joseph R. Douda

threw the lamp into Big John's cab window and finally

caught his attention, but Cooksey couldn't

get the

176 stopped

the

rear end

in time.

of the

through the way car door, refrigerator car.

was

He plowed

freight.

straight into

The coupling went

hit the stove,

then into the

was sure a mess, but nobody

hurt.

Cooksey had been on the job for relief, and he may have been dozing at the wheel from sheer exhaustion. Charlie Hallock was conductor on the passenger train. It wouldn't have been so bad, Doran remembers with a grimace (nobody hurt at all like that), but ramming the way car brought all the big shots It

fifteen

was

said that

hours without

ENGINEER JACK EDWARDS

with

oil

can about

1906.

memories of every railroader of those days there are dozens of other names. Danny Murphy was roadmaster of the high line from Edgemont to Deadwood around 1902-03. Joe Schurr was a brakeman on the Ruby Basin gold ore run. There were Joe Archambault, Walter Rouse, Bill TayIn the

lor,

And

Charlie Williams, Peckenpaugh. How many others? they kept right on rolling the trains into Deadwood

and Englewood. Photo by Art Eckern, courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

TWO

K ENGINES

the

south end of Trojan cut around 1907. There were days when the Spearfish spur really earned its

salt,

Doran

George

He was on

says.

Spearfish line the day they pulled the biggest load ever hauled over that the

mountain. They tugged thirteen carloads of cattle over the top. took three engines to do it with 300-somebig old battleship thing at the head of them all.

They made trouble.

the trip with no Ordinarily one stand-

ard gauge locomotive was expected to haul 200 tons over the Spearfish run.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

down to

to consider the

produce

pockets to

make

a while,

apiece

out

their

own

old Mose's ticket look legal.

Doran worked lington.

damage, and he and Oscar had

cents

sixty

various

spots

the

for

Bur-

smelter for

switched the 499 hog in the

Deadwood

at the

yards in 1903, went over the Spearfish line a few

was a brakeman but fired a while, too. Tillett was the high rolling hogger of the Spearfish line. Everybody remembers Sam Tillett "one of "the best hogger going at that time," the finest fellows that I ever met, and many is the time that I have thought of Sam. There was a grand bunch of fellows up there that time. There was none of them but what would always shoot square," .

AT ENGLEWOOD, B&M

Tillett

used to stop

at the

Bullock Hotel,

always select the best."

"Sam

was a great hogger and a very good friend of mine," "Sam Tillett and the baggageman car.

Calamity Jane off their train

ried

few days before she died

at Terry, S.

August 1903.

D. a have

me about it." Yes, sir, Sam Tillett was one of the best. When retired he moved to Alliance, Nebraska, where

his letter telling

times,

Sam

"Sam

Sam would

Tillett

Deadwood

switched

he continued his interest in railroading and early Black Hills history until his death in 1955. Charles

many

Tumey was

the

conductor with

times on the Spearfish run.

Sam

Boda Wamsley

on the Spearfish line for a while before he became engineer on the narrow gauge hogs. Eph fired

DAKOTA

S. on Burlington line. Early 1900's. In spite of their power, tonnage was #4005, trains of that day. Jim BuUard remembers that the standard gauge engine used on a real problem to the the helper job at Englewood was rated at 250 tons from Deadwood to Englewood. When the load was heavier on the Edgemont run, two engines were used to handle the tonnage. To make the way car as light as possible, the popular crummy of the day was a short chopped affair with only four wheels, one pair under each end and the whole thing weighing only fifteen tons in itself. In looking at old pictures of the 1902 cabooses used in the Black Hills, one is reminded of the Toonerville Trolley cartoon that had such a vogue some years back in time. It was about the same length, with platforms on either end and its four wheels somehow being entirely adequate to the situation.

Photo by courtesy of Joseph R. Douda

SPEARFISH CANYON,

Sept. 22, 1895, engine No. 237 on the Grand Island & Wyoming Central railroad. The Spearfish line over the mountain was not immune to annoyances either. The Pioneer Times for May 15, 1902,

noted

"One of the cars on the extra freight which was sent out over the Spearfish high line yesterday afternoon got off the track in one of the deep cuts above Terry and completely blocked the road. It was in such a position that it was difficult to get it back on the track, and after waiting for the Spearfish passenger until six o'clock to pull into Deadwood, another train was made up and just after the passenger from the east came in it was sent out to meet the blocked train and bring in its passengers. The extra train which went to the relief of the Spearfish train was made up of an engine and the observation car which is run every summer on the high line. Last night was the first trip it has made this year, but it is said that

will

now

be kept in service for the rest of the season."

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

much one could do for Calamity by that The Skalinder boys, Eric and Fred,

Stewart was a conductor on the Hot Springs passenger run for a few years, and worked the Spearfish

1903 and 1904 as well as occasionally going on the DC trolley as an extra conductor. run

John Carroll, working in

in the boiler

shops for the

Deadwood during 1901 and

left

the

Elkhorn where they had been working until 1901 and 1903 and signed up for Jack Birdsell on the O. Eric worked as a brakeman for a couple of months,

Burlington

time.

Fred was a conductor, too. Both were remembered as nice fellows, pleasant

then was conductor.

1902,

knew Calamity Jane, too. Calamity was around town, a woman grown old in years and hard from the life she had led, and sick. There wasnt says he

working partners.

There were a few big wrecks that got into the

FLOOD OF

1909, June 1, 1909, entrance to Burlington railroad yards at Deadwood. Ordinarily the Burlington would lay over in Deadwood until midnight to give the yardmen time to handle the cars, then at 12:20 in the black of night they pulled out of Deadwood to head back toward Edgemont, getting there by 6:00 p.m. After this spring flood it was a while before the train even reached

FROM ENGLEWOOD, another half hour brought the railroad through Kirk and Pluma to Deadwood by 1:30 p.m. Flood of 1909 shows Burlington tracks at Pluma, June 1,

1909.

Photo by

Deadwood. Photo by

Arthur Jobe

om^ FLOOD OF

1909.

between

Burlington

Pluma

and Deadwood, showing tracks washed out by Whitewood tracks

Creek overflow, June 1. Photo by J. Arthur Jobe

Ll RERAILING A MALLET NO. 4100 on 16 degree curve below depot at Kirk, S. Dakota. Aug. There were a num16, 1941. ber of individual accidents that either killed or maimed the men involved. Bob Freeland, an engineer, was scalded to death in the Edgemont yard.

George

Lee

when running

lost

arm

switch engine at Englewood. Riley Swift was killed when a train ran over

him

Englewood. Photo by courtesy of Joseph R, Douda

Arthur Jobe

men

newspapers, headlines blaring the names of

One such was

killed or injured.

wreck on the high line at Pluma in June 1902. The Times writeupwas interesting reading. Freight train No. 215 with 1 6 loaded cars and an empty "was coming from Edgemont Saturday night, and had almost reached Kirk station when the engineer found that he could not hold

rails,

The

with the engine."

toward the safety switch

the big

train continued

at that point,

overturned and spilled

its

cargo.

caught under the wreckage and

jumped

the

One man was

killed,

two were

badly injured and three or four others were bruised, but aside from a financial loss of around $6,000 to

BURLINGTON WRECK

April 20, 1910. 1/4 miles east of S. Dakota. Shows rope fastened to 3116 engine tender from the derrick in the effort to pull the tender and locomotive back on the track. The newspaper account describing the pictures comes from the Deadwood Daily Pioneer Times, April 21, 1910: 1

Kirk.

"Two

Burlington freight engines. Nos. 645 and 3116, present a remarkable spectacle and illustrate what can be accomplished in a few seconds in the way of rolling stock destruction, as they lie piled one on the other in the creek bed about a mile and a quarter east of Kirk. TTie wreck occurred at 4:30 yesterday morning. Freight train No. 203, a double header, was bound for Deadwood, with Conductor Spurgeon and Engineers Wittersneck and Allen. As they rounded a curve. 150 feet the other side of a bridge at the point mentioned, they discovered that the bridge was on fire, and the crew jumped for their lives. The train was moving at a speed of only ten miles an hour and they alighted safely without a scratch."

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

the railroad

company, the equipment was not badly

damaged.

couple of years later there was a bad wreck

on Berne

past Harney Peak about a half mile While we have not been able to authen-

hill,

to the curve.

ticate the details,

said that

E. (Billy)

When

engine.

they tried to slow the train, Charley

found that he had no

air in the air

battleship started roUing for fair.

when

the curves got too

men were breathed

again.

to handle and four George" Sanborn, con-

Peterson,

the

Ode Wheeler,

engineer, the

beyond the

never

fireman,

got

thrown clear of the wreck but into a nearby pond

20, 1910, Wa miles east of Kirk. S. Dakota. Shows remains of burning bridge engine No. 645 with engine No. 3116 piled against its top and a rescue engine to help

clearing the tracks on the track

the

many

killed. "Stuttering

was one.

ductor,

pump and

They turned over

BURLINGTON WRECK APRIL in the creek bed, smaller

Doph

was running one engine, Charley Peterson the head

pileup.

the engines struck the bridge it collapsed like an egg shell and they plunged down into the creek bed, only the tender of the second engine remaining on the grade. Several of the cars were derailed, but otherwise no damage was done to the train. "The bridge. No. 118, was 180 feet long and 20 feet high at the highest point. There is reason to believe that its destruction was due to incendiarism, as no engine had crossed it for nine hours before No. 203 came along. It was necessary to transfer the incoming and outgoing passengers, mail and express yesterday and it is probable trains will not be able to get through before tomorrow, as the bridge will have to be rebuilt before traffic can be resumed. The gap cannot be cribbed over."

"When

It took several days to get the trains going after that wreck, upright again, and after that they had to fix the bridge.

first

because

was a

big job to get the engines

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

of ice covered water ice

and drowned him,

which trapped him under the too.

1904-1949, Chicago, Burlington 8C Quincy In the latter part of 1904, the designation Burlington

Missouri

from the Black the

original

Quincy

River Railroad was

Hills lines

parent name,

and others Chicago,

Company.

Railroad

dropped

in favor of

Burlington

Once again

was

necessary to renumber the locomotives and the other

equipment for the narrow gauge lines. The short nine and a half mile spur from Hill City to Keystone on the Burlington High Line was finished rolling

February 25,

1900, but though that was the last

extension of Burlington tracks listed in our available

1916 United States Geological Survey map shows that the CBQ had rails from Nahant through Desant Park and almost to Moskee lumber camp, as well as another short spur to Hanna (a Homestake water pump station) from Dumont. Further investigation shows that the NahantMoskee spur was not a Burlington track, but a privately owned timbering railroad, a narrow and official

records,

standard gauge railroad of fairly short duration.

The

The standard gauge lines had their share of wrecks and troubles, too, but we have made little attempt to note them in detail because this is primarily a story of the narrow happen to have three gauge lines in the Black Hills. good pictures of a dandy wreck on a spot between Kirk and Deadwood which will prove our point.

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

father's

ranch three miles east of Hardy Ranger Sta-

mill through the timber country west of the Burling-

rails

Wyoming.

From Nahant,

ran up Little

Rapid Creek canyon northwest of Rochford into Wyoming, and terminated in Deer Valley not far from Moskee, Wyoming. Sole owners were "Mac" McLaughlin and his two sons, Leo and Percy. The railroad was built for one purpose to haul logs from the forest to the sawmill at Nahant, from where the lumber was shipped on BurHngton cars. It was being built in the years 1907-08-09, and for two or three years was narrow gauge all the way. Then section by section it was widened to standard gauge as far as the Hardy Ranger Station, and equipment converted to the wider rails. Above that point the narrow gauge locomotive known as "the 3 spot" operated. Frank Laird, Lead, was a boy on his

—

the burning bridge.

tion in those days,

Hills in

engine No. 645 in

April 20, 1910, 114 miles east of

Shows engine No. 3116 piled on top of creek bed, with smoke still coming from

McLaughlin Tie and Timber Company owned and operated a railroad that led from the Nahant sawton railroad as far as the western slope of the Black

*"%i

BURLINGTON WRECK Kirk, S. Dakota.

and he remembers that the water

tank for the railroad was at the Laird ranch.

were removed

shortest lived of all the railroads in the Black Hills.

have found no records of the equipment, where was bought or what became of it after the track was abandoned, but the roadbed is still visible. In some places one can still find weathered ties. Those years between 1905 and the 1920's were it

big years for the Burlington roads in the

hills.

Bur-

Rapid Canyon hne at down the canyon to Rapid City.

lington connected with the

Mystic, which rolled

At Englewood

met the Spearfish

ride; or

one could

go to Lead, Deadwood, Hill City, Keystone. Freight trains

loads.

chugged over the mountains, hauling huge Passenger service was taken for granted, it

was simply the easiest way to travel. The moved. Unfortunately, time was moving, too. It

couldn't

last.

trains

the late twenties automobiles

MARK TWAIN SPUR AT TROJAN »-'«^.

The

in 1916, leaving that stretch the

(Portland)

around

Though

the rails from Edgemont to Deadwood were called the high line as a matter of course by most railroaders of the day, there was also the Spearfish high line, and the North Western right of way to Lead from Deadwood (also running by 1902) was referred to as the North Western high line. Anything that crossed the mountains was apt to use that moniker at times. high line was a railroad track that rolled high in the hills. No one track had exclusive rights to the

1915, with clearance a

little

close.

terminology.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

were becoming accepted equipment for every family. Trucks were being developed for heavy hauling. Highways were beginning to see vast improvement over the Black Hills as well as the rest of the state and the country. The narrow gauges had seen their best years, but they were no longer needed.

The in

trolley track

came out

Gold Run gulch

1927, and the two narrow gauge railroads, the

BH&FP

DC were

abandoned in 1930. When washed out a couple of miles of track in Spearfish canyon, they made no move to fix the section. There wasn't enough business over the line to merit the expenditure. In 1934 the Interstate Commerce Commission authorized the abandonment of the Spearfish-Trojan service, too, and the railroad crews began ripping the rails from the glorious old Spearfish line. The Bald Mountain gold mine at Trojan kept the Englewood-Trojan portion going until the gold mines were closed during World War II, then in 1943 the entire length of track was abandoned. The Spearfish line was finished. In 1933 James L. Bentley retired under pension and the

a heavy rainstorm

rules

from

his job as Burlington Traffic

Representa-

tive in the

Black Hills

1894.

territory,

having held that job

He was

succeeded by D. H. Crary as Division Freight and Passenger Agent in charge of since

Mr; Crary had come to the 897 and had acted as local agent for the Burlington at Spearfish and later at Deadwood as well as having been in charge of the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western railroad at Rapid City as Vice President and General Manager from 1912 to 1920. Crary was succeeded by A. E. Brown, Traffic Agent from 1944 to 1948; L. Jed Wright from 1949-50; R. S. Balander, nine months in 1951; R. H. Brockman, 1952-56; and Joe R. Scalzo from 1956 to the present time. In the Burlington offices in Deadwood, R. J. Rhoades is Chief Clerk, having held that position from 1954. R. B. (Barney) Rowbotham was promoted from the Black Hills district.

Black Hills in

conductor

yardmaster

Deadwood

Rowbotham as yardmaster in Deadwood. Fred Houser, who had started working in the Deadwood roundhouse, became one of the best

replaced

THIS STANDARD GAUGE LOCOMOTIVE #302 was among Deadwood from

the southern edge of the hills.

later engines that replaced

1943, a

1958 when he became a conductor out of Alliance, Nebraska. Bart Rachetts post which he held until

the earlier Burlington engines steaming into Bigger than the narrow gauge hogs, it was still smaller than the

it.

Photo by courtesy of Rex Tario

ing engineer for the Burlington out of

became a travelEdgemont.

neering

Jack Knowles stayed with the narrow gauges as long

hoggers

was the conductor on the train when Dad Shaw was killed. George Walters was a conductor still running as late as 1910 on the local freight between Edgemont and Alliance, though O'Keefe did not list him in 1917. Boda Wamsley lived in Spearfish until his death in 1952,

until

engineers on the high line and later

as they ran in the hills, in fact

but gave up railroading after his Branch Mint engi-

stint in

who

1907. Frank Herron was one of the

Deadwood. He lived there 1957, and is remembered good fellows" of the Burlington

retired in

he died February

"one of the real

Black Hills

lines.

After Long Jack Birdsell's death and Al Gavin's death,

blind sidings on the Burlington rails were

named

after

both men.

LAST MALLET LEAVING DEADWOOD,

S. DAKOTA, July 18, 1951 on the weed spray train. All steam gone. The road crew comes into town with a large four-unit diesel. and a 600 h.p. diesel switcher handles the switching jobs. The old section house and boarding house have been torn down and a new section house built with white asbestos siding. The original old Burlington roundhouse built back in 1890 was razed about 1950. There isn't much left in Deadwood of the turn-of-the-century railroad landmarks, though the freight

power

office remains intact.

Photo by courtesy of Joe Hardy

THE BLACK HILLS IP

S(Xmi DAKOTA AND WYOMlNa

in the Black Hills between 1910 and 1930. taken from pamphlet The Black Hills of South Dakota," issued by Passenger Department, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company. ... l .u the A Burlington Route time table of July 1927 lists the South Dakota branch lines in some detail, showing through Buena Burlington leaving Edgemont daily at 8:30 p.m. and 8:20 a.m.. the morning train going Argyle, Loring. Vista and Chilson to reach Minnekahta at 9:03 and heading through the hills to Ivanhoe. on to Ked11:05. by City reach Hill to Canyon Harney Oreville, Berne. Custer, Sanator. Pringle. Mayo, south-southwest by 12:56 p.m. fern. Mystic. Rochford Nahant and Dumont to come into Englewood from the Another half hour brought them through Kirk and Pluma to Deadwood by 1:30 p.m. Used by permission of CB&Q Railroad

COPY OF MAP SHOWING THE BURLINGTON LINES

-i

â&#x20AC;˘

on Burlington line, June 1915. The night run leaving Edgemont started at #4006 AT HILL CITY, S. 8:30 p.m., reached Minnekahta by 9:12, Hill City by 11:35, Englewood at 1:30 a.m., and came into Deadwood at 2:10 in the early morning to lay over until 2:10 p.m. before heading back to Edgemont.

DAKOTA

Photo hy courtesy of Joseph R. Doiida

C.B.&Q.

LOCOMOTIVE

19x26 m., drivers 64

in.,

966, boiler

TRAIN 200

lbs.,

142, at Mystic

vi'as a K-10 engine, cylinders tractive effort 24,900 lbs.; converted from

September 27, 1947. This

engine weight 161,000

lbs.,

H-4, HavelockShop 1914. By 1927 the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railroad from Rapid City was making two daily runs from Rapid City to Mystic. The hills were pretty well honey-combed with railroad tracks, half narrow, half standard, part of them three-railed and all of them operating to full capacity. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

HANCOCK MAKING A RUN FOR THE TROJAN

CUT, around

1917. Spearfish line.

The Englewood-Spear-

time table indicates that a train left Deadwood at 8:30 every morning except Sunday, when there was no train, arrived in Englewood half an hour later and started up the hill. It climbed through Aztec (a mine site), Trojan. Crown Hill (where they chained the cars to the siding), down the steep grade to Elmore and Savoy. Iron Creek and Maurice, to arrive in Spearfish by 11:35 a.m. The crew would take a half hour for lunch, then leave Spearfish at 12:30 to chug up Spearfish valley on its lonely track to the top of Crown Hill and down again to Englewood by 3:35 that afternoon. It was a one day's run, every week day. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe fish

116

Chapter Four

THE FREMONT, ELKHORN AND MISSOURI VALLEY RAILROAD

COMPANY 1886-1903 When the Fremont, Elkhorn &

Missouri Valley Railroad was ambling around the western nickname was the "Farmers' Alliance." That name was a good one, with the railroad serving the farms and ranches in Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota, but it did not stick as the more familiar "Elkhorn" name clung to it. John I. Blair built it. He was a railroad manipulator of the last half of the nineteenth century, a man who not only had a habit of buying railroads but also of building them himself when he saw the opportunity. He had built the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company which reached Sioux City in 1868 and continued to Fremont, Nebraska. At Fremont he was instrumental in incorporating the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad Company January 20, 1869. From Fremont on the eastern edge of Nebraska the railroad slowly built west, year by year approaching the western edge and slightly angling north until it reached Chadron in the northwes'.ern corner of Nebraska by the end of 1884 or early 1885, and became the first standard gauge railroad to head for the booming Black Hills. For a while after it was begun, the Elkhorn was operated under the watchful eye of the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad officials with its close tie-in to that railroad by its common builder, John Blair. It was an independent railroad as far as title was concerned and legally was listed as such. The western plains had another stronger railroad at the time, the Chicago & North Western, whose enterprising Marvin Hughitt (holding various offices) was expanding in as many directions as he could conveniently manage. Hughitt was still only vice-president of the Chicago & North Western in 1884, having held that position since 1880, but he had been elected president of the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha in 1882 when that line became the principal subsidiary of the Chicago & North Western. The larger railroads of the nineteenth century grew through plains in

its

youth,

its

their policy of absorption of smaller railroads

when

possible, the building of extensions

when

neces-

combining and growing toward the west to ultimately achieve a coverage of amazing mileage across the western United States. So it was with the Chicago & North Western. The company owned railroads east of the Missouri River and east of the Mississippi, including the Winona

sary, always

& &

St. Peter,

the

Dakota Central, the Toledo & North Western, the Northern Illinois, the Princeton & Chicago, and the Iron River. With an eye on the trans-Mis-

Western, the Sycamore, Courland

sissippi lands they

began merging with a few no v ones.

117

LEAD CITY HOSE TEAM

photographed by Patriquin, Lead, S. Dak. around or before 1900. These old hose races are a thing of the past. For the elucidation of those who have never heard of them, the fire departments had a length of hose wound on a man-drawn two-wheeled spindle, the idea being to see which fire department could hook up its hose to a hydrant and lay it out for use in the shortest time. The Journal states:

"The race was 300 yards, couple to hydrant and lay 300 feet of hose. The time on the run was: Rapid Deadwood, 0:59 and Lead City 1:11 3/4 minutes. In figuring out the result it was decided Deadwood team had been guilty of an infraction of the rules, and consequently they were ruled out and Lead City given second place. The decision of the judges gave general satisfaction to all

City, 0:57 3/5; that the South

but the losing team."

Photo hy courtesy of Jim Jelhert In 1884 the Chicago

& North Western

acquired

control of three railroads through the purchase of

which did not give them outright ownthem enough pressure that they could and did lease the lines for operation under Chicago & North Western management, the

capital stock,

ership of the hnes but gave

lines retaining their legal entity as

independent

rail-

These included the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad, the Missouri Valley & Blair Railway & Bridge Company, and the Fremont, Elkhorn & Misroads.

from Fremont to Valentine, At the time of their leasing, Marvin Hughitt became president of each railroad, at the same time retaining his title as vice-president of the Chicago & North Western. This interlocking directorate and management of the North Western and the Elkhorn lines has made some confusion in histories as to the early ownership of the Elkhorn. By the records of the North Western archives themselves, the North Western did not own the Elkhorn outright until it finally purchased it in 1903, and until then the Elkhorn kept on building north and west through its own name and its own resources. In 1885, the Elkhorn turned north from Chadron, Nebraska, and entered South Dakota to reach Bufsouri Valley Railroad

Nebraska.

falo 1

Gap on

he next year

48.1

the southern it

rim of the Black Hills.

skirted the foothills to build another

miles to Rapid City,

still

on the

foothills but

well up on the northeastern corner of the Black Hills.

THE CHAMPION CHINESE HOSE TEAM

of America, race at Deadwood. Dakota Territory. July 4. 1888. Deadwood had quite a Chinese population in the early mining days before the turn of the century, all of whom have moved to other areas at this time. 1964. Photo hy CJrahill, courtesy of Mrs. James O'Hara

who won

the great

Hub-and-Hub

CENTRAL CITY,

D. with Desmet Gold Mine and

mill

Copyright 1912 by W. B. Perkins. March 20, 1891: Black Hills Daily Times "Narrow gauge engines for the Elkhorn's Bald Mountain-Ruby Basin system are expected to arrive within the next two weeks. In less than six weeks the standard gauge, on which, from the smelter up, a third rail will be laid, will be completed to Central, when track laying on the narrow gauge from Central to Bald Mountain will at once begin." Photo by courtesy of Mrs. Marion Littey

in distance.

was the

morning for

railroad to reach Rapid City, and was celebrated with such a celebration as had never been planned in that town before or Old clippings from the Rapid City Daily since. Journal of that week give us some of the excitement. The first actual train came into town on July 4 bringing with it the Elkhorn men who were to be stationed at Rapid City, but the celebration was scheduled to be July 5. Willy-nilly, the train backed up and sat on the edge of nothing several miles out of town until the next day to wait for the celebration, then chugged into Rapid City again to be welcomed by the crowds gathered from various parts of the Black Hills. The Rapid City Daily Journal was a morning newspaper at the time, and since its members celebrated with such gusto along with the rest of the town a holiday was declared Tuesday It

first

its

employees, with the result that the

report of the celebration did not get into print until

the occasion

July 7,

Wednesday morning.

Early day newspaper reporting was inclined to be flowery and rather extensive, but ate that a portion of that July 7

be reprinted here to chronicle the great event. "Celebration tory in

Day"

will

long live in his-

and those who were perbe present Monday in this city and

Rapid

City,

mitted to witness the ovation tendered the first regular passenger train to arrive in the Gate City of the Black Hills, should they respond, will delight in teUing to future generations the experiences of that day. For days and days nothing was said or done in Rapid City but was connected in some way with the celebration, and in our neighboring towns the live-

LAST COACH LEAVING RAPID CITY FOR DEAD WOOD TERRITORY, Coaching Days are gone.

it seems appropriRapid City Journal

1890.

"Farewell. Deadwood's

Proper Leavetaking. "On Sunday, the 28th day of December 1890, at 12 m., the Deadwood band in uniform and a large concourse of citizens assembled in front of the Northwestern stage office to bid farewell to the last run of the old Northwestern to the railroad. The horses were decorated with flags. The coach, a tallyho, was loaded down with about thirty persons and preceded by the band and a procession of citizens in high hats and walking sticks, was escorted to the lower end of the city to the depot, where the passengers dismounted and three hearty farewell cheers were given to one of the old timers in our city. Well, those old coaching days are gone but that of the railroad has come and well may we rejoice, though in our rejoicing we remember with sadness the departure of an old pleasant sight that has whirled through our streets these many long years. Goodbye old coaching days, goodbye." Photo by courtesy of Mrs. James O'Hara

119

NORTH

SroE TAILING PLANT AREA, Nov. 17, 1901. Shows Elkhorn engine coming around the bend. Elkhorn boxcar on siding at Blacktail, engine pushing coal cars. In the hills above Deadwood, Elkhorn men started laying the rails for the narrow gauge service to mines and camps above Deadwood almost immediately. The Deadwood Central was laying rails into Ruby Basin in 1891 from the lower end of the area. The Elkhorn came from above Ruby Basin to reach the upper mines of the area, pushing its rails up Deadwood Gulch past Gayville. Blacktail and Central City hitherto unserved by any railroad, and worked its way up the canyons to Portland, the town known today as Trojan. Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company liest interest in

the affair

was manifest.

The last meeting of the board of trade had been held, the final arrangements had been made, and all awaited with impatience the dawning of Monday, the day on which our busy little city was to be formally espoused by the railway." pointed to success.

Saturday the height of anticipation had been reached, and everyone was on the tiptoe of expectancy. The delegations were already coming in, the hotels and lodging houses and everything were already crowded,

BLACK HILLS TIMES, May

1891: "The Elkhorn railroad yesterday began stretching iron toward Central City. this time on: one of the three bridges having been completed, and the other two between this and Central now being well under way. Iron yesterday was laid as far up as a point opposite

The work

will progress rapidly

from

the flouring mill." railroad rolled into Central City, S. Dakota. LocoOn May 25, 1891, the first express train over the motive #57 standard gauge. Identification of men, from left to right, Martin Jelbert. Billy Ellis, James Jelbert, two boys seated on coach steps are Jim Jelbert and Jim Lutey. At far right Jack Lutey and Johnnie Rosenkranz are seated in front of engine. Other men and children unidentified.

FE&MV

Photo by H. R. Locke

Deadwood and Lead

C. McBride, by courtesy of Jim Jelbert

City,

>^>v1

^(i"^^.

'^^m

i 'i:;.*.?^

'^i

^1^

\ •^»»

FREMONT, ELKHORN

MISSOURI VALLEY ENGINE

208, date about 1900.

Men

identified:

Eric Ska-

2nd from left; George Lovtensky, hands folded. Locomotives 208, 209, and 210 were three foot gauge, Class C type, and 4-8-0 wheel arrangement, built in Schenectady, New York, and shipped to the Black Hills by rail. The Times, May 16, 1891, tells of the arrival linder,

first two: "Sunday's Elkhorn freight train brought in two from this city to the mines of Bald Mountain and

of the

tively,

and were accompanied from Patterson,

new narrow gauge engines for use on the road's extension Ruby Basin. The engines are numbered 208 and 209 respecN. J., by Mr. L. Mackey of the Schenectady locomotive works,

built them. They are to all appearances counterparts of the regular passenger engines in use on the road; look as large, or very nearly so, and like the bigger locomotives have six driving and four pony wheels. Each of them (naked) weighs 35 tons; with tender, 44 tons. Average weight of standard gauge engines and tenders is about 47 tons. The difference therefore is slight. Mr. Mackey, who has for the last twenty-five years been kept busy delivering and setting up engines, stated yesterday that it had taken just ten days to make the trip from Patterson, 10." N. J., to Deadwood, himself and the engines having started 1 and reached Deadwood The Times was in error in regard to the wheel arrangement, but was correct in the rest of its report.

which

May

Photo by courtesy of Carl Leedy

People started gathering in town on Sunday,

Monday morning

teams, whatever else seemed to

fit

the occasion.

the parade

the procession reached the grounds the train arrived,

was formed with three bands, three fire hose companies, two "hooks" which probably meant the climbing equipment of the fire departments, various official parties and individuals in carriages and walking, the baseball teams, the treasure coach which transported bullion, mule teams, trade displays, ox

engine No. 30 pulling one baggage car, one mail,

waiting for the big day.

coaches and two sleeping cars. Engineer George A. Morton and Fireman George Johnson ran it, while Conductor J. T. Beatty collected the

three

Appropriate addresses of welcome were followed by band music, a baseball game, a trap shoot

fares.

121

SERPENTINE RAILROAD IN NEVADA GULCH. Deadwood

Central track goes up Nevada gulch in bottom narrow gauge line to Terry crossing on trestle. "The Nevada gulch trestle was reached at 12:30 p.m., an hour having been consumed in the trip, and the train was brought to a halt. Time did not permit the party to continue on to end of the track, four miles further, where Mr. Cunningham is in charge of the iron crew. At 1 o'clock the party starts home behind engine 209, with Engineer Tetrou at the throttle. TTie return trip was made much more rapidly, the train reaching Deadwood at 1:35 p.m. Mr. Chapman, assistant to Chief Engineer Ainsworth. informed the Times man that there are seventeen miles of narrow gauge track between Deadwood and Bald Mountain. TTiis includes spurs to the various mines ... in Bald Mountain and Ruby Basin districts. Not a mine of consequence is missed. The road will be practically completed within the next ten days, and shortly thereafter the company will put on regular trains to run on schedule time between this and the mines. Several passenger coaches for the narrow gauge are now at Missouri Valley, and will soon be brought up and put in service. It will then be worth any one's while to make a trip over the road if for no other purpose than to enjoy the magnificent scenery it offers." Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe of canyon.

C&NW

tage.

Until then everyone in town claimed his time-

followed the hose races, and a ball continued through

piece

was correct

the night.

bor's clock proclaimed.

and hose races by the

To ".

fire

companies.

Fireworks

made

quote the Journal again: .

the music

time, regardless of

The coming

what

his neigh-

of the railroad

necessary for everyone to set their watches

and clocks according to railroad time, and after that three o'clock in one block was three o'clock in the

was ravishingly sweet, and

the surroundings so enticing that the dancers lingered on and on, and only took their departure when the last dance was finished and

next block, too.

had died away. The gray light of dawn was struggling for supremacy with the

the Black Hills,

sickly flame,

So the Elkhorn had reached the outer edges of and paused only momentarily before skirting around the northern edge of the hills to reach Whitewood (drawing closer and closer to Dead-

serted, save here

wood by

the music

glare of lamps, paling their bright blaze to a

and soon the streets were deand there a belated party of roysterers wandered aimlessly along occa-

)

the end of the next year,

moted

to the presidency of the

or wearily laughing at an alleged jest. It wi'I be years and years, and maybe never again, before another such celebration is witnessed in the Black Hills."

& North Western

They knew how

totaling 4,210.75 miles

887.

In that year of 1887 Marvin Hughitt was pro-

sionally indulging in fragments of a chorus .

Chicago & North

Western, the biggest plum to add to his road presidencies.

coming of a railroad in those days, even though a few items such as the right date got mixed up in the melee. Actually the coming of the railroad had one distinct advanto celebrate the

and

His

first

list

rail-

stockholders listed various lines

owned by the North Western, he named the Elkhorn as

in a separate report

one of the

lines leased

by the North Western for He was

operation with the North Western lines.

122

report to the Chicago

president of the Elkhorn as well as of the North

Western, but he could not

North Western road

Deadwood was

list

the

Elkhorn as a

waiting for the glint of tracks

entering her city limits, but that did not keep the

Times editor nor its rival, the Deadwood Pioneer from taking sharp jabs at each other over railroad items. In spite of the Deadwood and northern hills anticipations, they had to wait until more than another year had passed before they began to actually see action on nearby railroads. In the spring of 1890 both the Burlington from the south edge of the hills at Edgemont, and the Elkhorn from the north edge at Whitewood, started a race for Deadwood in the heart of the hills, and comments flowed thick and fast. It would be neceseditor

sary to run a

1,300 foot tunnel through the

Deadwood

the railroad battles.

The formal announcement appeared two days first train, on December 27, 1890, Black

before the

Times:

"The FE&MV Ry. has issued a circular from the general passenger office to all local agents, stating that on and after Monday, Dec. 29, the Deadwood extension will be open for passenger traffic. The sleepers now run between Missouri Valley and Whitewood will be run through to Deadwood. Four sections, viz. 8, 9, 10, 11, will be reserved for the accommodation of passengers on this end of the road. The circular is signed, J. R. Buchanan, G.P.A., and consequently is the official notice of the formal opening of the road."

days later Elkhorn engine No. 43 entered

had stalled on the grade one mile north and had to call another engine to help pull its five coaches part way, then went on alone to Deadwood. The newspapers noted that the locoIt

of the tunnel

celebrated in a fitting manner, but they

could not compete with Rapid City's welcome in

The Black

1886.

Hills Daily

Times for December

30, 1890, printed the story which

we quote

in part:

"Yesterday, December 29, was a histori-

day for Deadwood, the metropolis of all the Black Hills. The first passenger train from the outside world arrived in our city promptly on time, 8:40 p.m. over the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad and was greeted at the depot by fully 2,000 people. Even at that early hour, men and women, carriages, horsemen, and people on foot crowded to the depot and lined the street cal

to-

gether under the organizational name of "South Dakota Western Railroad Company." The Elkhorn was planning its mountain division of narrow gauge spurs above Deadwood at the same time it was working on its standard gauge extension from Whitewood to Deadwood. They pushed the tunnel through the mountain between Whitewood and Deadwood, they worked on the grade, whipping their horses and mules to keep the grade leveling toward the upper hills, and in December of that year, 1890, the Elkhorn steamed into Deadwood, first standard gauge railroad to reach Deadwood, South Dakota, in the early years of

Two

were ten-

which would have seemed adequate to do the may have been only momentary. At any rate, there was the Elkhorn, and Deadwood had a railroad connecting it to the rest of the world.

hills

and Marvin Hughitt called a railroad committee

Deadwood.

division

job so the trouble

between Whitewood and Deadwood, right of way was cleared for the Elkhorn through Deadwood,

Hills Daily

Deadwood

wheelers, with six drive wheels, weighing seventy tons,

yet.

still

motives for Elkhorn's

THE CHICAGO

NORTH WESTERN RAILROAD

Dakota, between 1891-1928. Copied from the United States Geological Survey Map, Spearfish quadrangle, 1915 edition. The entire Elkhorn upper mountain line of narrow gauge tracks was a complicated series of switch backs and spurs that went up Deadwood Gulch to Portland Junction, from where it went in one direction to Crown Hill and stopped, and in the other direction angled into Terry and down the

Black

Hills,

Nevada Gulch and Fantail Gulch

to meet and cross the Burlington and Deadwood Central lines in Ruby Basin. The spurs to mines are listed on the map of narrow gauge lines in the Black Hills, alphabetically as follows: Astoria Extension, Ben Hur and Extension, Boscobal, Bunker Hill, Central City House Track, Central City Passing track. Cherry Gulch, Crown Hill Siding, Crown Hill Y, Cyanide Mill, Cudahy, Decorah, DeSmet, Dividend, Double Standard, Eagle Chief, Folger, General Grant, Gilmore,

CNW

Golden Reward, Golden Reward No. 2, Gunnison Siding, Gunnison Spur, Golden Reward Mining Company, Harmony and Extension, Hidden Fortune Siding, Homestake, Homestake Extension, Isadore, Little Bonanza No. 1, Leopard, Lucille, Lundberg, Dorr &. Wilson, Mark Twain, Minnie Hoist, Mikado or Astoria Extension, Portland, Powder House, L. C. Richards, Ross Hannibal, Slimes, Seims, Smiley and Lundt, Snowstorm, Squaw Creek, Summit Siding, Swift Spur, Stearns, Terry Siding, Tornado, Trojan, Trojan Mining Company, and Welcome.

Chka&O^WC i'v'

/'Hf

Noit1HW£OT£liN RailROM:>

Nofi.THtKN 3laC><. Hill

lie«<»ood to Cer'M/ C»f» end L»ai - 3 R^ilfJ Central City • Varfow 6«>^J&

Ad,'>'<-'

and walks

for a quarter of a mile, awaiting the gladdened the hearts

arrival of the train that

of thousands. The first intimation given the waiting people of the approach of the train was the heavy bass roar of the whistles on the

reduction works and as the heavy sonorous sound came up the gulch the waiting thousands knew that the expected train would soon rush in sight and there it was rounding the curve in full view, the black coal smoke in the sky marking its trail, and its shrill whistle screaming an answering response to the shouts of the people and waving of handkerchiefs. There she is! There she comes!

What

a glorious sight!

Deadwood banners

." .

celebrated as Rapid City had, with

bands playing, firemen parading, and of the railroad and the town escorted in

flying,

the officials

triumph to a banquet

hall.

The

rest of the observ-

ance consisted of the speeches at the banquet, after

which the railroad settled

down

officials left

the

town and Deadwood

business of every day living

With proper decorum, the Times waited until the December 30 issue to note the end of its coaching days, though the last stagecoach left Deadwood one day before the first train came to town. This may have marked the end of the Northwestern coaches, but the Deadwood-Spearfish stagecoaches run by John McClintock operated for many years again.

more,

A DeSMET STAMP MILL

and gold mine

at Central

City,

South Dakota, on the Chicago & North Western Railway. Some of these mines were in production during the 1891-93 period of activity, and others did not produce ore until around 1899 or later. Many of the names are meaningless today, others have retained enough identity to mark certain spots in the Black Hills. Photo by C. C. McBride. Deadwood. S.D. by courtesy of Wni. L. Rosenkranz

mont

it is

believed until about 1913.

month

came from EdgeDeadwood. The two

later the Burlington

to meet the Elkhorn

standard gauge Unes had Uttle friendship between

Deadwood Cennarrow gauge hog and found they had one thing

them, but their crews looked at the tral

common: Black Hills Daily Times, January 31, 1891:

B&M

are "Trainmen of the Elkhorn and inclined to sneer at the diminutiveness of the

Deadwood

CHICAGO & NORTH WESTERN BOXCAR

and Deadwood mine, B. Cook's house. Cook's

mill,

Central.

siding in Deadwood Gulch, Nov. 28, 1901, all sites

"Betsy," engine No.

shows Blacktail Gulch, Baltimore between Deadwood and Central

City.

Dec. 19, 1900: 'The officials of the Elkhorn road were in Deadwood yesterday, and it is hinted that their business here had to do with the proposed establishment of hourly trains between this city and Central. The Elkhorn had such a service between the two towns for several years. It was taken off when the shutting down of the works around Central caused a falling off in business ..."

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

V*.

has

been

designated

'peanut

"Leaving Deadwood at 11:30 a.m. the party was whirled rapidly up Deadwood gulch through Gayville, Central and Golden Gate, no stop being made at any of them. ... In the distance between Central and the Nevada gulch trestle, about five and one half miles, there are no less than four horseshoe curves, each as it is approached appearing sharper than the last. The grade at the first of these, being at head of Deadwood gulch, is startling, and at a glance one would be willing to wager pretty nearly all he was worth that

roaster,'

Which if any of the names will stick is not known. The DC boys fortunately were not around when their pet was so alluded to, or a sensational column 'dinkey,'

and 'wheelbarrow.'

with scare head might have been furnished."

They need not have been so scornful. Before the year was out the Elkhorn men were running their own narrow gauge hogs above Deadwood, and the Burlington men waited only two more years before they found themselves on the Deadwood Cennarrow gauge engines, even Little Betsey. The Elkhorn was making progress in various ways. A roundhouse containing five stalls was built in Deadwood. The building of 19 bridges between Deadwood and Bald Mountain was begun by the middle of March, with piling on eleven of them finished and the building of spans well started. Three locomotives were bought, No's. 208 and 209 in 1891 and No. 210 in 1892, weighing around 70,000 pounds each. Eight narrow gauge flat cars arrived in Deadwood about the same time. The Elkhorn main line to Ruby Basin was built between May 22, 1891, and July 9, 1891, and the Portland line was begun June 22, 1891 and finished August 29, 1891. By June 27, however, the length of railroad from Deadwood to Nevada Gulch was completed to the point wherein the Elkhorn officials invited a Times reporter to take one of the first Though official rides over its high mountain run.

Times reporter did not a good report of the event

"... The

train,

tender and three

identify himself, he gave

consisting

was

engine,

charge of conductor Alex Thorndike. Engineer Tom Burt pulled the throttle and fireman Bunnell saw to it that sufficient steam was maintained to pull the train over the heavy grades it was necessary to climb. flat cars,

built could cHmb it. The grade here is the heaviest on the line, and as subsequently learned, is 8.21 per cent, or 425 feet to the mile. The little engine No. 208 however never faltered or hesitated, and without even an extra puff or blow, sped merrily onward, climbing without an apparent effort and seemingly as easily as on level track. The rise becomes more marked and rapid after Deadwood Gulch is left, and the train keeps on toward Bald Mountain. The divide separating Deadwood and Nevada gulches is soon reached and crossed, the cars then being at an elevation almost as great as is the top of Bald Mountain. Emerging from the third horseshoe curve, the train speeds along

no locomotive

tral's

the

mountain side above Nevada gulch, where a hundred feet below a thin stream of silvery water, and the track of the Deadwood Central railroad, made miniature as a toy by the distance, are seen paralleling one the

another."

From Deadwood, a total of 18.35 miles of narrow gauge were laid by the Elkhorn railroad in the northern hills by the end of the year, and a portion of the Elk Mountain extension was built in July 1892. Then for five years, the narrow gauge tracks remained static while the Elkhorn concentrated on its

standard gauge lines in other places.

While the narrow gauge track was being the standard rails

laid,

were extended from the end of

THE ELKHORN WORK TRAIN JUST ABOVE GAYVILLE,

Dec. 29, 1901. The Burlington had no intention of building into Central, but the Elkhorn was looking at the situation with a critical eye. TTiey put a gang of graders to work up the gulch, cutting a new hole in one of the mountains to straighten the 1893 track, surveying possibilities along the route and curving from Blacktail or Gayville to climb the mountain toward Lead with a series of switchbacks and curves that eventually was to get the railroad grade into a fairly gentle climb at the top of the mountain before it was to pull into Lead, an addition of 2.92 miles.

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

'^-'•^,,

^' Hr.'T.«r<

'4»^'V

-^tv

GAYVTLLE, Deadwood

Gulch, South Dakota. December, 1902. Elkhorn Engine 210 on curve toward Lead, other rails curving right toward Central City. Spring had come to the hills again before actual track laying was under way, but once started the graders and track laying gang made good time. From May 1, 1902 untU May 22, the Elkhorn pushed the new grade with everything they had. They wanted to have the track ready for the Odd Fellows Grand Lodge convention, .May 23, so the official delegates could be hauled to Lead via Elkhorn narrow gauge on the first train to run on the new rails a fitting way to re-establish the Elkhorn narrow gauge passenger service through Cenrtal City.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

Photo hy courtesy of Chicago the line at

Whitewood

to Belle Fourche,

around the Black Hills industry there.

quired the tion in

Wyoming

foothills

still

tap the cattle

and the upper mines, by 1893 producmines up Deadwood Gulch had so far

the stairway, tion in the

Central Railway by consolida-

Wyoming by

fallen off with resultant lessening of passenger traf-

and ore freight that by the end of the summer was decided to discontinue regular passenger service between Deadwood and Central City, with ore

purchase,

fic

and the South Dakota Western by purchase on June 4, 1891, which disposes of the short-lived South Dakota Western mentioned in an earlier newspaper

runs being

release of the year before.

the

made

preparing for a

tioned in a listing of leased railroads completely in-

Elkhom's notice

dependent of the Chicago & North Western financial

stated

In his capacity of president of the Fremont,

Elkhorn

Nebraska,

Wyoming,

and

the

Elkhorn men were

in the

Times, dated August

1893,

"The Elkhorn is making preparations for handling about 1,200 people on August 16, Labor Day, the picnic to be held at Ruby Basin. There will be four trains from here of five cars each in the forenoon."

Missouri Valley, he totaled the Elkhorn

holdings

and when necessary.

bumper day's business when it would haul people to Ruby Basin for the August 16 Labor Day picnic, which was noted in the Deadwood Central and Black Hills & Fort Pierre reports, too. The

mileage as 1,154.45 miles, a distance which included its

same moment

Marvin Hughitt's report to the Chicago & North Western stockholders in 1892 still listed the North Western and its proprietary lines as separate from trans-Missouri River lines. The Elkhorn was men-

records.

North Western Railway

In spite of the railroad being there, the depot,

farther

a wider scale, the Elkhorn ac-

1891, the Eastern

South

Dakota.

126

*«^*%1li »-.>'

{•

,T.>.

GAYVILLE

'^^:

(Blacktail area) in 1964, contrasting the Gayville 1902 picture.

Photo by Fielder

The

Ruby Basin Labor Day

music, dancing at the pavillion, and athletic sports

few years, which was to be Another narrow gauge locomotive, twin to the first three, was purchased as number 2 1 1 to be used between Deadwood and Lead. They were

programs with "prizes and a tug of war between teams from Terry and Central."

holding a convention in Lead on

later report of the

residents for the past

picnic notes that nearly three thousand people gath-

renovated.

ered for the celebration and enjoyed speeches, band

nearly ready.

For four years thereafter, the narrow gauges of Elkhorn ran when ore trains or freight was necessary between Deadwood and the upper mines, with no regular schedule. The Deadwood Gulch

the

run through Central City was virtually

regular use.

Odd

there.

They made

at a stand-

Once again

for awhile, but the tracks

upper area prompted the Elkhorn officials to extend the Elk Mountain spur and to build another called the Clyde Hill line, both completed in August.

Lead

be ready to haul

their deadline,

to put

the

them

hauled the

City,

Ruby Basin

final

rails

condition for

narrow gauges were running for

Deadwood, Central

the Elkhorn Hne between

in the

Odd Fellows was May 19, 1902, and

Fellows to Lead, and then went over their

more carefuly

were there and ready be used again. In 1897 the opening of new mines

still

Elkhorn was determined

them

the

The Grand Lodge

City,

Portland and Terry, and through the

Business was good, and more locomotives. Besides No. 211 mentioned in the May 15, 1902 dispatch, they ordered and received another of the same style and weight. No. 212, within a short time. to the mines.

the Elkhorn needed

In December 1900 a rumor started that the Elkhorn was considering opening the Central City pas-

senger service again, and with the rumor facts fol-

lowed close on its heels. The Lead Daily Pioneer Times of December 18, 1900, spoke of an Elkhorn ticket office, kept open for the convenience of Lead

Both were similar

to the first three engines in use,

but some three tons heavier in weight.

The Elkhorn

127

in the

Black Hills was doing

all

ELKHORN RAILROAD ABOVE DEADWOOD, May 1902, shows ore cars piled beside railroad.

Pioneer-Times,

May

29, 1902:

"Commencing Monday number of trains which

the Elkhorn will increase are being run daily on its mountain division of the narrow gauge. On that date a night ore train will be put on and continued permanently. It will leave Deadwood at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and return in the night when loaded. This will make three trains to Bald Mountain and Ruby Basin districts daily via the Elkhorn. The night train will be in charge of Fred Skallander as conductor. The other trains will be in charge of Frank the

Flannagan,

first

conductor and Conductor Meyers.

The

increase in trains is due to the large amount of ore that is now being hauled daily by the line, it having grown to a great extent within the past year. »o great in fact that the company was unable to it with its former facilities." Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

handle

«v ** >Va.al»V^^f NORTH WESTERN, 1902, AT BLACKTAIL. -

CHICAGO

'This photo was taken shortly after the hourly &. inter-urban trains began running between Deadwood and Lead in the fall of 1902. Engine 225 is a standard gauge 4-6-0 headed west on the 3 rail track which continued on to Central City; on the trestle which blocks the old line sits a narrow gauge No. 209 which has just come from Lead. Running along Deadwood Creek into the gorge at distant left is the line west of Deadwood."

Photo by courtesy of Chicago

r$ )

North Western Railway

11.

THE BLACKTAIL-GAYVILLE AREA IN and the cut building

known

1964 contrasts the 1902 picture. The Lead line has been abandoned A highway takes the place of the other railroads. Only the big

with trees and caved in rocics. as the tailing plant is still there.

filled

Photo by Fielder

right.

Back

in the general offices of the

Chicago

Watertown in the northeastern corner of South Dakota by 1873. The fiscal report of the North Western for 1874-

North Western negotiations were being made to absorb the Elkhorn raihoad as an integral part of the North Western, and in May 1903 that fact was

75 described that early transportation, condensed

accomplished.

and reported

The Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad name was gone its track, right of way, equipment and men a part of the Chicago & North Western. The old Elkhorn had done its bit for the build-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

The Chicago

North Western

way. They ran from Cheyenne, Wyo., Sidney, Neb., Sioux City, Iowa, Yankton, S.D., Pierre, S.D., and Bismarck, N.D., and enabled all classes and conditions of people to get into and out of the hills. "The route and rates of fare by one of these lines has been preserved. It was via the Chicago & North Western Railway to Sioux City, Sioux City to Yankton via Dakota Southern R.R., Yankton to Fort Pierre via Steamer and thence via North Western Stage Company's Concord Coaches to various

Railway

Marvin Hughitt, the Chicago & North Western's had his eye on the purchase of the Elkhorn for some time. The rival Burlington system had a throttle-hold on the southern passage into the Black Hills, and though the Elkhorn lease was accomplishing more or less the same thing for the North Western by skirting around the edge of the hills, Hughitt wanted the North Western name on the cars competing in the northern hills president since 1887, had

points in the

against Burlington traffic.

"The

From

the time the

first

hills.

from Chicago to the was $41.45, and second class $34. The second class was for deck passage on the steamers and bull teams from

The North Western had a reputation in South Dakota stretching way back before the BurHngton dates in the state.

Rapid City Daily Journal, July

"There were neither trails nor roads from civihzation into the hills. Very soon, however, various means of transportation, from bull teams to Concord Coaches, were provided, and in all cases fostered in various ways by the Chicago & North Western Rail-

ing of the west.

1903-1928:

in the

1936:

hills

gold colors

first class fare

this route

Fort Pierre to the

had been found in the Black Hills the North Western Railway had been issuing tickets for transportation to the hills, though its rails went only as far as

hills."

The North Western could Missouri

129

River,

where

they

build as far as the

bumped smack-dab

TERRY.

C&NW

CROSSING DC TRACKS AT TERRY.

were employed, and nearby mines were working

Terry

1905 was a thriving town where 500 miners

at full capacity.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

on the west

against the Great Sioux reservation

and had

of the river

to stop.

They

Superior, Nebraska; to the

side

Wyoming

did build gradu-

South Dakota as by 1880. That early railroad into Pierre was the Dakota Central Railway, owned and operated by the North Western.

In the upper hills, some of the original mines had already been worked and abandoned, but others like the Lundberg, Dorr & Wilson were just beginning a profitable showing of ore. Back in governmental offices the decision was made in the early 1900's to open portions of the trans-Missouri lands in South Dakota Indian reservations for railroad rights-of-way and white settlement. Both the North Western and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroads had reached the Missouri river by 1880, the North Western's terminus being at Pierre and the Milwaukee looking over the river at Chamberlain some miles downstream. The two railroads were arch rivals, both serving approximately the same territory. In 1904 both took part in the great capitol fight of South Dakota in which the residents of the state argued long and loud over

ally across the eastern portion of

far as Pierre

The Sioux

reservation blocked further westward

moved to Ordway, to Columbia, Watertown again, Yankton, Faulkton, Verdon, Gettysburg, and Groton via the Dakota Central, with satellite Minnesota & South Dakota Railway Company coming into the state from Tyler,

expansion, but they Redfield, into

Minnesota to reach Astoria, S.D.

The North Western was Dakota's eastern half that turned itt

and

its

sod.

1900.

much

a part of South

those years as the plow

One does

not wonder that Hugh-

his directors fretted at the delay in getting

a North Western train into the Black Hills despite the fact that their leased

Elkhom was doing

well in

whether the state capitol should be at Pierre (served by the North Westem) or at Mitchell (served by the Milwaukee). When the noise subsided from the capitol fight, the Milwaukee announced its intention to build across the westriver lands to Rapid City direct from its Chamberlain base, and the North

the west.

When

was completed in 1903 for the final purchase of the Elkhom, the North Western stepp>ed into a going concern. The Elkhom had reestabhshed its narrow gauge mountain mns above

Deadwood

the deal

with

its

five locomotives, ore cars to the

mines, passenger cars, and had standard gauge

Black Hills; and into

as far as Casper.

Western immediately got on its high horse with the announcement that they would get there first. Both began building from all ends, the Milwaukee extending tracks from Chamberlain and Rapid City, and the North Westem staking its right-

al-

most encircling the Black Hills to tap the cattle ranges and agricultural districts. With its narrow gauges in the hills (a minor part of the Elkhom operation) the North Western bought a total of 1,372 miles of road operating lines from Fremont, Nebraska, to Hastings, Lincoln and

of-way on a parallel

waukee.

130

line a trifle

north of the Mil-

The North Westem followed

the

Bad

C&NW ORE TRAIN

(narrow gauge) rounding Bald Mountain on way to Terry and Trojan, 1906. Two engines, one in front and one in rear. The fact of the new grade to Lead did not lessen the service that the Central City and Portland narrow gauge was doing on its climb up Deadwood Gulch to Ruby Basin. Both were needed, and both continued their runs. The "X" locates Custer Peak.

Photo by

River to the Cheyenne River, passing within eight

Bad Lands

Black Hills people.

fifty

Deadwood

Above Deadwood Princess" was running

schedule and

long with no railroad at

they had been isolated so

"SUm

its

service to the

The Rapid City Daily Journal, July comments with considerable rejoicing:

10,

1907,

"Today

will see the last rail layed and the spike driven to connect the rails on the Pierre & Rapid City. It hardly seems possible that the long looked for line across the reservation is a thing of the present."

last

was

finally held in Sep-

tember, the three day event was called the Railway

and included speakers,

named some

of the

narrow gauge men for the North Western active around 1900 or the early 1900's. Engineers were John Meyers from Hastings, Nebraska, Johnny Rule, George Lovtensky, Guy Williams, Joe Hilton, Tom Fee. Conductors were Tom Bums, Turner, Frank Berry, Claude Stirling, John Howard, Lew Sharp, Ernest Rakestraw. Brakemen included George Nash, Howard Keller, Fred Vanocker, Ed Ligman. Others who worked around the narrow gauge then were Frank Smolge, who fired on the same engine with John Meyers; and Frank Bruner, fireman under Joe Hilton. Bruner went to Casper, Wyoming, with Johnny Rule around 1915. Guy Woods was a switchman in Deadwood. George Selway was a freight handler and then a switchman at Lead between 1905 and '07, and stayed with the railroads until 1938 when he quit to go into the grocery busi-

Western General Agent, at Winona, Minnesota, says Milwaukee trailed by three months.

mock

Western

Angelo Rich, who worked on the North West-

that the

Jubilee

its

North

regular hourly passenger

ern narrow gauge for 55 years,

though a diary kept by Alex Johnson, then North

the celebration

the

passengers.

all.

According to the Rapid City Daily Journal the North Western beat the Milwaukee by six days,

When

into

CNW

railroads race for the Black Hills twice within a sev-

when

come

upper mines as they needed it. Those who remember say that North Western trains headed toward Lead and backed to Deadwood. There was no turntable at Lead, but there was a mighty fine depot and plenty of

Pio-

neer-Times editor chuckled up his sleeve to see two enteen year period,

getting used to having trains

town.

miles out of

Doubtless the

was

City

Rapid City. The Milwaukee followed the White River and headed directly through the Bad Lands for its goal. It was a race that was watched with interest by all miles of the

Arthur Jobe

exhibits, parades, a

and fireworks in the evening. It could not begin to equal the 1886 celebration for the welcome to the Elkhorn, however, and the city made no attempt to claim it as such. Governor Coe I. Crawford was the principal speaker. That was celebration enough. Rapid freight train holdup, Indian dances

ness in

Deadwood.

Joe Hilton's brother, Ervin, was a conductor on

131

MMM is!

189

liT

m -

Ill*

-nS^c\^^.

ÂŤL THE CHICAGO

468, 477, and 933. 1906.

iSc^^

NORTH ESTERN renumbered the Elkhorn engines in January 190: C&NW engine No. 933 pulling up to the Lead depot with passenger ^s;

Here the

Photo by

same train with Joe for a few years, starting about 1906 or '07. Ervin died in 1910, leaving

the

his brother to continue in the railroad

game without

train, Oct. 11,

Arthur Johe

gauges earlier than any of them, beginning as a fourteen year old boy on the section above Dead-

wood

1900 when the railroad still belonged to Young Rich was one of the crew that

the Elkhorn.

him.

Angelo Rich

started

working on the narrow

built the first section out of Central City

Elkhorn later

laid the

new spur

he was made section foreman.

when

the

Three years

Lead.

stayed with

that job until he retired in 1955, keeping the tracks

above Deadwood in repair

until the

narrow gauge

was pulled out in 1928, then working out of Dead-

wood on

Deadwood. brothers-in-law worked

the standard gauge rails below

During that time four of his under his direction on the section, three of his brothers, his father and father-in-law, his son and his grandson. The brothers-in-law were the Roberts

ORE TRAIN LEAVING

the Montezuma and the Whizzers mines for the smelters, engine =:I298. C&NW narrow gauge between 1903 and 1905, between Deadwood and Central

City.

One its

full

the

of the first acts of the rights over the Elkhorn,

North Western, once it had was to change the numbers

narrow gauge locomotives to suit its own fancy. to 212 inclusive of the Elkhorn were re-nuii-

Numbers 208

1298 to 1302 respectively immediately after the North Western took possession. These narrow gauge hogs ran under those numbers for two years. Photo from Black Hills Illustrated, 1904 bered

-tr-

...

3yif .f

TWO

-:sS-

-t.

-l"^

AROUND

TO GAIN 200 FEET between Lead and Deadwood, Black Hills, S. Dakota 1909. MILES Passenger service between Lead and Deadwood was established on an hourly schedule, with old histories and records referring to that narrow gauge passenger service as the "Slim Princess." Local people called it the "Little Dinky." Photo by W. B. Perkins Co., courtesy of Mrs. Marion Lutey back then our main trouble was keeping the snow

boys, Thomas, Mike, Joe and Archie. The brothers were Nick, Peter and Ernest Rich, his son, William A. Rich, and his grandson, James H. Glenn. His

out of the cuts in the higher hills."

Bucking the snow was a real job, Rich remembers. The men would sometimes take as many as three engines, the first locomotive driving head-on into the drift as far as it could go. Then the second would hook to the first and pull it out, sometimes

and father-in-law, Frank Roberts, were both pensioned by the C&NW before their father, Peter Rich,

deaths.

and are

still

When

the group, four stayed with the railroads

C&NW men.

with the aid of the third engine, only to repeat the

around 1902 and Rich says that the North Western operated three ore trains out of Deadwood for the upper mines, two passenger crews and two switch crews at Deadwood. One ore train would leave for Terry at 7:00 a.m., another for Crown Hill at 8:00 a.m. Both would get back to Deadwood by evening, and night crews would take the same trains back for the night shift. There was plenty of work for the men in those days. The mines were working at the height of their prosperity and the railroads hauled things were going well

onslaught again and again until they saw light on

later,

the other side of the passage.

1916 blocked the tracks up and says. Three engines and a down the line, coach hauled thirty-five men up the mountain to

have

They reached Trojan about five It was winter, and five o'clock was pitch dark. The men had supper at the Portland Hotel and went back to work. They reached the

clear the tracks.

o'clock that evening.

Burlington overhead before they quit for the night, then

Didn't the North Western

their share of disasters

began pushing again the next morning. It men and three engines

took two days for those 35

on those high narrow

to clear the tracks,

was

rails?

"No

Rich

the ore.

What about wrecks?

bad storm

wrecks," says Rich. "Derailments, sure, but

still

and when they had finished there

the danger of derailments on the icy hard

crusts of the rail flanges.

133

RAILROAD YARDS AT WHITEWOOD,

South Dakota,

1905. Shows the coal chute, depot, roundhouse and yards of the Chicago & North Western Railway at the time when 14 trains per day came through Whitewood on the 3 lines centering there. George P. Baldwin's account of 'Transportation in the Black Hills" for 1904, published in Black Hills Illustrated. states the situation concisely: "The Ry. really enters the Black Hills proper at a point between Whitewood and Deadwood, skirting along the foothills for a hundred miles and deriving trade from the country tributary to such towns

C&NW

Rapid City.

Except for the winter, Rich Western had few troubles on

the North narrow gauge

North Western narrow gauge ore trains above the narrow gauges as engineer

the

Deadwood, stayed on

tracks.

There those

etc."

Joe Hilton, working as early as 1902 or '03 on

insists, its

Whitewood, Belle Fourche, Photo by courtesy of Chicago North Western Railway

Sturgis.

isn't

a railroader aUve

booming

were adventure

who

does not recall

railroad days with nostalgia.

the highest

sense.

They

They were

years of building a greater America, years of fast

moving progress spiced with the danger of heavy machinery and sweetened with the sense of accomplishment. No man who ever worked the early railroads in the Black Hills will ever forget them as long as he

alive.

Lew Sharp and

Ernest Rakestraw worked to-

gether as conductors on the North Western narrow

gauge to Lead for 1943. Joe Ficci

C&NW

many

section crew above

that time.

years,

remembered

Sharp

retiring

have been on the

Deadwood

during part of

CNW

became a fireman on working for the North Western

as long as they ran, then

standard until

gauge,

he retired in

was an engineer it

existed, then

an engineer

Deadwood

for

C&NW

1941.

Guy

was on a switch engine

until

he retired

Williams

narrow gauge as long as

for a while,

1941.

and his son, Chester, both Rapid Canyon Line, Rapid City, Black Hills & Western for many years, began working for the Chicago & North Western in the middle 1940's and are stUl North Western men at Rapid City. Another former Crouch line (Rapid Canyon Line) man was Asa Johnson who came back as fireman for C&NW after World War II, and

James (Rusty)

whom worked

Sheriff

for the

died in 1957 as the result of an automobile accident.

ARRIVAL OF FIRST TRAIN THROUGH FROM PIERRE,

Deadwood, S. Dak. The Journal says that the North Western came into town on July 14, 1907, four days after the connecting spike between Pierre and Rapid City had been driven near Philip about half way between the two points, and that the Milwaukee drove the first through train from Chicago to Rapid City on July 20, 1907. Surely Rapid City must have known the trains were coming, but the celebration was delayed until September 5-7, nearly a couple of months later. The North Western's extension was officially known as the Pierre, Rapid City & North Western, a dignified name of which Rapid City citizens must have thoroughly approved. /. F. Carwile postcard, by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

C&NW NARROW GAUGE TRAIN APPROACHING

thud rail to Lead from GayLEAD, May 30, 1906. possible the direct shipment of freight cars from the North Western distant points directly to the mountain top mining town without transfer to the narrow gauge cars, and the possibility of hauling mixed gauge trains of freight over the switchbacks to the top of the mountain and directly to their destination at the Homestake

ville

made

gold mine.

Photo by

the other hand, Stephen A.

Western employee before 1920,

Rapid

City,

ager of that

the

Heam

was a North

accounting

when he changed

later

Things began to slacken in 1922, Angelo Rich The ore train was taken out of opera-

tion

being man-

1920, and the passenger business started

falling off shortly afterwards.

Original

line.

Number

210, re-numbered

1300,

re-

numbered 468, was the first narrow gauge hog to be dismantled when it was scrapped in December 1924. Four months later old 933 (originally Elkhorn 212) met the same fate. For two more years the Little Dinky came up the hill using the three other narrow gauges and sometimes a standard

Angelo Rich can look down the seniority list of men who worked under him through the years and speak with pride of

Arthur Jobe

remembers.

department

his allegiance to the

Black Hills & Western,

men who stayed with the railwho worked for Rich between

roads. Walter L. Best,

1916 and 1926, became a foreman for C&NW at Rapid City. Of Rich's own family, the four who stayed with North Western and are still working today include Ernest Rich, who is in the Chicago & North Western Car Department in Rapid City; Nick Rich is TraveUng Passenger Agent for C&NW out of Omaha, Nebraska; Joe Roberts is C&NW Cashier at Belle Fourche, South Dakota; and Mike Roberts is the C&NW Cashier at Rapid City. Angelo Rich retired in Deadwood, still keenly interested in the North Western trains going past his house and the community problems of Deadwood.

in April of 1927 the first two on the line were scrapped, No.'s 208 and 209, re-numbered 64 and 410. The passenger service between Lead and Deadwood was discontinued in 1927 as no longer paying its way, and the next year the last locomotive of narrow gauge proportions met the same sad end dismantled and sold for junk. The

gauge locomotive, then

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

line

was abandoned

1928.

Some of the rolling Lamb Lumber Company

stock was sold to

Warren

for their logging operations

135

ANGELO

RICH, SECTION FOREMAN, and

his grandson. James Gienn, 1945. C.N.W. section crew on standRinehold Roebuck. There aren't many old timers from the North Western narrow gauge available any more. Of the old gang that operated the ore cars and passenger coaches above Deadwood in the earliest years. Angelo Rich may be the only one still living. He worked as section foreman for fifty-five years, retiring in Deadwood. though he has spent the winter months in Arizona or the Pacific coast since his retirement. One other who worked those narrow gauge lines from 1910 was Ed Ligman, Hermosa, South Dakota. All others of that early gang are dead. We owe Angelo Rich credit for many reminiscences that remain of that time.

ard gauge track below Deadwood. At

left.

Pilot o by cuuriesy of

in connection with the Rapid Canyon hne, and part was scrapped. Warren Lamb got the five passenger coaches, the three box cars, ten gondolas and ten flat cars. The entire roster of 75 ore cars was sold for scrap. They had done their duty in keeping the Black Hills mines working, but they were no longer

Wood is Supervisor and City Agent & North Western at Deadwood in

cago

It isn't

office.

The empty

lot

where the Lead depot used

Deadwood, the Chicago & North Western passenger depot was sold to the city and has been con-

Tennis courts were added

verted to use as the city's

entire recreational area

stand was used for

many

years as a softball in

1956, and

field.

1963 the

was moved to make room for the construction of new houses. The railroad bridge

and city offices. Deadwood now on Monday, fire station

diesel

964, having

much like the old days, but freight still comes as far as Deadwood and the company maintains that one

nights,

for the Chi1

held that position for the past several years.

needed.

Freight comes into Wednesday, and Friday

Angelo Rich

engines fur-

gone, the high trestle has vanished, the tracks of

nishing the power.

The

on one level and the tracks of the Little Dinky on the second level have both disappeared. If one didn't know, he would say they could never have been there at all.

old turntable in the lower

the trolley

end of Deadwood was scrapped in 1957, and all that is left of the early Chicago & North Western buildings is the freight depot, run now by one man. M.

136

BOULDER CANYON

high-

way, Black Hills, South Dakota, June 23, 1907. This might show why railroads were so popular in the early years.

Photo by

Arthur Jobe

NARJIOW GAUGE LOCOMOTIVES FOR THE FREMONT, ELKHORN & MISSOURI VALLEY AND CHICAGO & NORTH WESTERN

C&NW

Orig.

No.

Date

Builder

Number

Date

Number

Shop Date

No.

Type

Gauge

208

Schenectady, L.W.

1891

1298

1903

1905

3421

4-8-0

36"

209

Schenectady, L.W.

1891

1299

1903

410

1905

3422

4-8-0

36"

210

Schenectady, L.W.

1892

1300

1903

468

1905

3703

4-8-0

36"

211

Schenectady,

ALCo. 1902

1301

1903

477

1905

26610

4-8-0

36"

212

Schenectady,

ALCo. 1902

1302

1903

933

1905

27601

4-8-0

36"

Class

G G G G G

Disposition and date, other notes: 208,

CNW

64. Dismantled 4-23-27. This was one of the first two engines received for use on the 1298, Elkhorn line above Deadwood, received in Deadwood May 10. 1891. It was shipped by rail on a standard gauge flat car, and was accompanied by Mr. Mackey of the Schenectady company, who set it up on arrival in Deadwood. The 208 was used in the first official full-length ride up the narrow gauge mountain run to

Nevada Gulch. 209,

CNW it,

CNW

1299, 410. Dismantled 4-23-27. The 209 was bought at the same time as the 208, came with used over the same route, and dismantled at the same time. Pictures show the 209 as passenger engine

on the Lead-Deadwood run. 210,

CNW

1300,

CNW

468.

Dismantled 12-13-24. No. 210 was also used as a passenger engine between Lead

477.

Dismantled 11-23-28. No. 211 was received in Deadwood May It was ready for running when it arrived in town.

and Deadwood. 211,

CNW by

212,

rail

CNW

1301,

CNW

flat car

14,

from Schenectady.

CNW

1302, 933. Dismantled 4-9-25. Received shortly after No. 21 1. All locomotives were coal burners when first purchased, and converted to oil burners in 1912.

137

1902, shipped

TERRY FROM ABOVE. Deadwood Central crossed over DC on bridge seen in center of

came up picture

gulch.

CNW

narrow gauge came around

and went around

hill at right.

BH&FP

line

hill

left,

can be seen (white

up Whitetail Hill. Roger O'Keefe worked on the narrow gauge above Terry at Trojan (Portland) as a track laborer in 1916. He says: "I spent a week or so with a large crew of laborers, a narrow gauge work train consisting of an engine and a string of flats and we were engaged in ditching in the cuts where the line wound around Bald Mountain on the way to Terry, Trojan and Crown Hill. Believe me, I recall these little things with a good deal streak) in upper center going

CNW

of nostalgia."

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe )•

DIMENSIONAL STATISTICS— FE&MV AND CNW LOCOMOTIVES FE&MV

CNW CNW

Cylinders Drivers, Diameter

Boiler Pressure

Weight of Engine

208 1298

209 1299

1300

211 1301

410

468

477

210

212 1302 933

16x20

in.

16x20

in.

16x20

in.

16x20

in.

16x20

in.

160

lbs.

160

lbs.

160

lbs.

160

lbs.

160

lbs.

70,000

lbs.

70,000

lbs.

70,000

lbs.

72,000

lbs.

72,000

lbs.

88,000

lbs.

88 000

lbs.

19,400

lbs.

19,400

lbs.

19,400

lbs.

19,400

lbs.

19,400

lbs.

Total Weight of

Engine and Tender Tractive Effort

Note: Records do not agree on some of weight of

all

these statistics.

Other records

locomotives as 66,000 pounds.

138

list

diameter of drivers

36 inches, and

g#^%^

TERRY IN

1964. The railroads are gone, All the mines in Terry have closed, and it

a high\va\ circles the area in a true ghost town.

which most of the town once

lay.

Photo by Fielder

&N.W. TRAIN IN BLACKTAIL CUT, May

30, 1906. steep catch-alls for every snowflake that whipped around the hills, and the cuts filled deep and hard. Joe Hilton was stuck at Crown Hill for a week in 1908 because he couldn't get back to Deadwood through the snow. He was working an ore train, and when he finished the switching at Crown Hill he went to the Y, tried to plow through a snowdrift in a cut and was struck tighter than a drum. The engine was completely buried. He wiggled out of the cab and walked back to the nearest habitation to send for help, and another crew went up the mountain to rescue Joe but the engine did not get back to Deadwood for two weeks.

The North Western

cuts were

sharp,

Photo by

Arthur Jobe

ON THE HIGH

C&NW

LINE between Lead and Deadwood, engine 410. The railroad tracks had then ;ui\an the train was not on them we used the tracks as convenient pathways to picnic grounds, to woodland hideaways, to visit the neighbors, and even to reach school. The tracks necessarily cut through small hillocks along the way to school to achieve a level grade in themselves, and we remember that every hillock marking a train cut had a well marked path right over the top of it. These were the "short cuts." There were boys who were brave enough to walk through the cuts in spite of the danger of unexpectedly meeting the train, but for the most part we took the short cut over the top of the hill and down to the track on the other side. It was not only safer but much more interesting, and nobody had ever told us that the shortest line between two points is the straight one. Geographically speaking, to this day a "short cut" indicates in my mind the long way around. tages.

When

Photo by courtesy of Mrs. Marion Lutey

CENTRAL CITY

1958,

approximate spot as 1912

from pic-

Railroads are gone, the mines are abandoned, only ture.

highways go through left

what

of the town.

Photo by Fielder

THE NORTH WESTERN DEPOT AT LEAD,

and the "Open Cut." The North Western depot is gone. too. It was built over the top of the same vein of rock that slipped with the disappearing mountain known as the "Open Cut," and because of the dangerous ground all of the buildings along that area were razed, condemned as unsafe.

Photo by courtesy of Homestake Mining Company

141

THREE TRAINS AT LEAD,

after 1905, Homestake compressed air mine engine, North Western 468. BurlingBeyond our home the Little Dinky climbed a short distance more before it reached the long trestle that merged into the railroad bridge over Main Street and under the Homestake Mining Company's tramway. Here we have the same three-stacked tracks at the time of the North Western usage, in the same spot as that shown for the Elkhorn coming into Lead in 1902. The trolley ran on the lower track, with the old Deadwood Central steam engine gone. The North Western, not the Elkhorn, had the middle bridge. On top, crossing the high tramway that carried mine cars for the gold mine, the little "J. B. Haggin" of early days had disappeared completely and only a compressed air mine locomotive used the 22 inch tracks of that impossibly high

ton trolley.

trestle.

Now

three tracks

1964,

all

three are gone.

seems strange, when for years everybody thought carelessly that the

would be there forever.

142

waa^s^W^f&^^^^^^S^^^^^^^^^^^^^KM

.4^

r^A>*i*. 14

*'-

i.,aBB«t.»*i«'-*'.'-^-."*-- ->--•-

f*«*^^

?«;•«»-. '%^?f>^

•'-*

•ihiiB'r'

111

'^^"-^'^^^

.*^

.^iLIZ-

-C-'y-

J^'^ '^i^^-

,>^\5s»-

:si'..

s* ^

VIEW

looking up Lead

Street

from

C&NW

tramway

Main

'^iJ'n

•

iifi

bridge.

passenger train crossing lower bridge, engine No. 933.

October

1906.

Fhoto by

Arthur Jobe

^^4 .

A ^

CKapter Five

THE RAPID CANYON LINE 1890-1903:

Preliminary names

There's a tortuous twisty canyon leading from Rapid City in the eastern foothills of the Black Hills range, up the gorge cut by Rapid Creek and into the higher northern hills where Rapid Creek finds its headwaters in a series of springs. This is Rapid Canyon. From the early 1890's until 1947 that piece of mountain scenery was the locale for a combination of standard and narrow gauge tracks known by a variety of names, finally ending as the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railroad. From the beginning, the hne was plagued by troubles lawsuits, fires, floods, wrecks, cars that bounced off the rails, rails that would not stay on bridges, bridges that would not stay on their flat rock pilings, and sundry other hazards. It boasted over one hundred bridges. It claimed that every rail used was curved to fit the canyon. Men were killed on the line, and fortunes were lost by its owners. In spite of everything, the Rapid Canyon line served a definite purpose in the building of the Black Hills economy and has earned a place in this history of the early Black Hills railroads. The exact date of when it was started is difficult to establish, beyond the fact that it was the very early 1890's. The Rapid City Daily Journal of March 28, 1906, called it the Dakota & Wyoming & Missouri River Railroad, and stated that W. E. Coad started it in 890 when he constructed the first seven miles out of Rapid City, sinking a hefty $400,000 in the railroad before his load of bills

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

collapsed the project.

The Black

Hills

Weekly Times of April

18,

1891 and

May

1891 gives spot news of Coad's

activities:

April 18, 1891: "W. T. Coad of the Dakota, Wyoming & Missouri River Railroad, in the city yesterday and states that his company will have a corps of engineers in the field within the next few days; the graders will follow the engineers as soon as possible and he is confident the road will be completed and in operation between Rapid City and Hill ." City not later than November May 9, 1891 "Rapid City, S. D., May 2. Hon. W. T. Coad returned home this morning having successfully negotiated sale of the $100,000 issue of bonds, authorized by a recent vote of the people."

was

1936 the Rapid City Daily Journal published a review stating: "The Dakota ÂŤ& Wyoming Railroad was first organized in the early '90's with W. T. Coad as its promoter. The first ground was broken August 21, 1891, when Acting Mayor P. B. McCarthy turned the first soil near Canyon Lake with a spade said to have been made In

of Black Hills tin."

144

CROUCH CHANGED THE NAME

of his railroad to the Missouri River & Northwestern and had the imposing name painted blaringly bright across the front of the building which served both as warehouse and office, but it was quite a mouthful and most people (including the newspapers of the day) were much more apt to call the new railroad "the

Crouch Line." Photo by courtesy of Carl Leedy

FROM THE DAY Crouch

took

control, people believed in him. They knew he would finish that railroad. publication of the

Burlington Route in 1904

"Mines and Mining

in the

titled

Black

Hills," includes a map of railroads in the Black Hills in

which the first appearance of the Rapid Canyon line, dotted to indicate proposed route to be sure, was definitely there. It is called (to add to the confusion) the Black Hills & oming Railroad, so we

add another name

Wymay

to our col-

but it begins at Rapid City, goes up Rapid Creek to Canyon Lake, Scott's Mills, lection,

Pactola,

Silver City,

to finally

reach Mystic.

Photo by courtesy of Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad

FHE BLACK HILLS )F

SOUTH DAKOTA AND W^'OMBW. u«t* o* au^JMiTOn

«0»<T«.

^ ^ ^iJBBMBB^^^HBiWiEaitfldic:^

MYSTIC HAD A MILLING

and experimental plant in 1904, but its principal claim to fame remains in that it once was the spot where the Crouch line connected to the Burlington. Photo from "Black Hills Illustrated," 1904

PICNIC TRAIN, MISSOURI RIVER &

NORTH WESTERN RAILROAD,

1906,

front of Pactola

Dam.

Leedy agrees that it was in 1906 when Crouch reached Mystic, but he says it was not really in good shape that first summer. He remembers that: "The rails and ties were just lying on top of the ground and had to be ballasted and surfaced. All the rails had to be curved, and the curves were so short that straight rails were uncommon. The sharpest curve was at bridge 999 where the curvature was 18 degrees 45 minutes. There were several spots where the grade was 4Vi per cent. F. C. Tucker was chief engineer for Crouch from 1903 to 1904, with H. C. Avery assisting him. After 1904 Avery took over the job of chief engineer and managed the work very capably until Crouch lost the railroad in 1908." Photo by courtesy of Carl Leedy

^""^

f*5

for

The Black Hills Daily Times, May 16, 1891, some of the troubles that faced Mr. Coad:

1903-1908:

indicated

"Surveyors for the

Rapid City

Coad

railroad

to Hill City, returned to

from Rapid

City yesterday, having surveyed the route through Park Canyon. This route is reported impracticable, and will be abandoned. The engineers wiU take the field again in a day or two, and try the Prairie creek route."

Again we read

1936 Rapid Journal: "Originally known as the Dakota, Westin the

em &

Missouri River, building of the line was started in 1896."

down to essentials, Rapid Canyon in the early Boiled

the

name

of the line

1890's (either 1890,

1896) was either the Dakota & Wyoming; the Dakota, Western & Missouri River; or the Dakota, Wyoming & Mis1891,

1892,

but certainly not in

by W. T. Coad. Although most of the right of way was granted by government land grant, Coad found that the cost souri River Railroad, started

was such that his cushion of He had a civil engineer, F. S. D. Broughton, working with him in laying out the line, and had contracted with Charles D. Crouch

of building a railroad

cash was soon gone.

build the grading for the

money was

rails.

When

Coad's

gone, Broughton stepped in with another

$65,000, and still the bills accumulated. Even between them Broughton and Coad could not meet their obligations.

In 1893 they were sued for non-payment of bills and the railroad went into litigation. They could it. Their money was gone, and in 1895 company became defunct with Crouch remaining

not save the

unpaid along with the other creditors.

For three years the one lonely Dakota & Wyomon a spur at the west end of St. Joe Street in Rapid City, useless, unwanted. An effort was made to re-organize the line into something called the Dakota Pacific, but from all we can find now, the only thing accomplished by the Dakota Pacific is that the engine was- sold in 1898 to a lumber company at Tacoma, Washington. A. M. Leedy, engineer for the Dakota & Wyoming during the Coad administration, was the man who delivered it to the lumber company. ing engine sat

ON RAPID CANYON

LINE, entering Dark Canyon. Rapid Creek tumbles down its two joined forks. South Rapid and North Rapid, above Rochford to begin the formation of Rapid Canyon when the waters of Slate Creek join it about a mile below Mystic. Down the gulches it sparkles, gathering momentum and spring water from various tributaries, through Silver City and past Pactola, Big Bend, Hisega, to enter finally high walled Dark Canyon before it meets Canyon Lake on the western outskirts of Rapid City.

Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

The Crouch

Line

After the sale of the engine, Carl Leedy, son of

A. M. Leedy, says, nothing happened on or for the railroad until 1903, and then C. D. Crouch decided that he his

would

try to get

something out of the

unpaid work on the grading. for unpaid contract.-

line for

sued the defunct

company

Leedy reports "C. D. Crouch, who had completed all and work so far on the railroad, sued was awarded a judgment for the unpaid balthe

ance of his contract. Foreclosing his judgment, he thereby obtained all the assets of the road, including all of the right of way. I have been told that $25,000 would cover all he

Mr. Crouch had invested at that time. was successful in borrowing enough money .

(Opposite Page)

BOND ISSUED BY LISBON SYNDICATE COMPANY, 1909, for Rapid City. Black Hills & Western Railroad Company. The Lisbon Syndicate Company sold a bond issue in 1909 for stock in its Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railway, with coupons attached which were to be redeemed at specified times on each coupon, extending the coupon cash values through several years. The bond was an impressive document, headed "United States of America. State of South Dakota. First Mortgage, five per cent (5%) Thirty Year Gold Bonds of the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railroad," with a splendid picture of a railroad locomotive illustrating the title. The bonds said in part:

complete the construction to Mystic. This

Rapid City. Everybody living from hand to mouth. Common labor was raised from $1.50 per day to $2.00, and carpenters were able to get

was was

a big thing for

$3.00."

1904 a publication appeared titled "Black which a chapter on "Penningwritten by George P. Baldwas ton County Mining" In

Hills Illustrated," in

win.

"The Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railroad Company, a corporation organized and existing

quote:

under and by virtue of the laws of the State of South Dakota, hereinafter called the 'Railroad Company,' for value received, hereby acknowledges itself indebted to the bearer, or if registered to the registered owner of this bond, in the sum of FIVE HUNDRED ($500) DOLLARS which sum it hereby covenants and agrees to pay to such bearer or registered holder in gold coin of the United States of

"The Burhngton railway penetrates the western end of the county, passing through a rich mineral section, and the Northwestern skirts the foothills, touching Rapid City. These trunk lines furnish excellent railroad facilities but one of the richest mineral sections of the county, Pactola and Silver City, are now without a railroad. The Black Hills & Missouri River Railroad, however, will tap

America of or equal to the present standard of weight and fineness on the first day of May in the year 1939, with interest thereon from May 1st, 1910 at the rate of five (5% ) per cent per annum, payable at the office or agency of the Railroad on the First day of November and the First day of May in each year upon presentation and surrender of the coupons hereto attached as they severally mature, and without deduction from such principal or interest for any taxes or assignments which the Railroad Company or the Trustee may be required to pay thereon, or to deduct therefrom under any present or future law of the United States or of any state, county, municipality or mining district therein. The bonds covered by said mortgage or Deed of Trust, and every part thereof are subject to call by the Railroad Company

on its east-west line from Rapid City to Mystic, on the Burlington. Some fifteen miles of grading are completed, and bridges finished and track laid on eight miles of this road, while the directors give out that the forty miles between Rapid City and Mystic will be completed and equipped within a year. Along the surveyed route, following Rapid Creek, are the mining camps mentioned and great quantities of timber that will be available for mining purposes. It will give an outlet to the smelter at Rapid City for the ores that would now have to be transported by team, and its completion will undoubtedly mean much for the future of Pennington it

on November after.

1st,

1919, or on any interest day there-

." .

The bond was dated the "first day of May, 1909" and signed by Charles E. Hoyt. Secretary, and Geo. E. Macomber, President.

County."

anybody is keeping track, we now have eight for the Rapid Canyon hne, adding to the first three the names Dakota Pacific; Missouri River & North Western; the Crouch Line; Black Hills & Wyoming Railroad; and the Black Hills & Missouri River Railroad. Crouch paid no attention to any of them. He had named his railroad the Missouri River & North Western, and that's what it was as far as he was concerned. Nevertheless, it had to be built with that kind of belief behind it, and Crouch was the man to do it. He not only laid actual rails on the grades that he and his construction gang had built, but he pushed them all the way up Rapid Canyon for a rough If

names

LANPHERE-HINRICHS

had a railroad of the:r own which hauled the logs from timber camps to McGee's Sawmill, where they were re-loaded from Lanphere-Hinrichs cars to Crouch Line cars for haulage to the Rapid City mill. The Lanphere-Hinrichs cars did not have air brakes and could not be used on the regular trains.

Photo by courtesy of Mrs. Marion Lutey

148

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AMD CITY

BLACK HILL!

tt*Y 19(3

•.Of.

(opposite page)

THE COUPONS,

May

The

other specified dates] at the office of Columbia Trust in the city of New York Twelve Dollars and Fifty Cents ($12.50) in gold coin of the United States of America of or equal to the present standard of weight and fineness, being six months interest then due on its first mortgage five per cent bond. Unless called for previous redemption. Jas. C. Halley, Treasurer."

Rapid

company redeemed no

of effort.

Crouch had

marking the laying of the

last rail.

was

teen complete circles if they were put toThe twenty actual miles cUmbed by the thirty-five mile road see an ascent of

gether.

The Crouch

1,790 feet."

cars could be switched onto the Burlington trains

minimum

a hard job, with deep cuts through hard rock, with 105 bridges across Rapid Creek, and with enough curves to make four-

hngton trains passed on the standard gauge high Hne

with a

quote the Rapid Journal again, the July

that year,

go any further for the moment. At Mystic the Bur-

between Edgemont and Deadwood.

110,

"The original idea had been to extend the road far beyond, but that never was done. It did get through to Mystic, though, in 1906, and there was a big celebration May 27 of

others.

was not necessary

105,

1936, review states:

thirty-four miles to Mystic.

City,

variously estimated as

numbered according to the miles from so bridge 999 would have been 9.99

miles out of town.

Obviously James Halley was interested in that railroad no matter who bought it. The bonds and coupons carried fancy promises. Carl Leedy has one of those bonds in his possession with coupons clipped from it in exactly three railroad

bridges,

or 113, were

Company

The

of various kinds for the rest of

his railroading Ufe.

and November for thirty years, read as follows "Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railroad Company will pay bearer on the 1st day of May 1911 [or

spots.

him trouble

give

which were to be redeemable

There

built standard

gauge up that twisty canyon, a decision that was to

that time

was, waiting at Mystic for business.

Rapid City

residents

were

still

heating their

DATES REGARDING WARREN LAMB EQUIPMENT

of this period have been difficult to obtain. This is a narrow gauge Shay engine taken in the Sheridan Lake area which may have been in use during the '20's. One of the most important of the narrow gauge spurs built then, nominally under Warren Lamb management but with a definite tie-in to the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western, was a thirty mile stretch from the lumber yards at Rapid City, third-railing the original Crouch line standard gauge to a point between Cleghorn Springs and Tittle Springs about eight miles out of town, from where it branched independently to the left to go up Prairie Creek, Brush Creek, and through Scott's Valley, following Spring Creek to terminate at Sheridan and Camp 15, where Sheridan Lake's waters now nearly reach a spot called Wheel Inn.

Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

151

RCBHdtW ENGINE NO.

14 at Mystic Dec. 3, 1946. Dates for locomotives are hard to pin down, but comparison of dates indicates that locomotives being used by the Rapid Canyon Line during the '20's also included a No. 55 (a second-hand Baldwin), and a No. 14 (Schenectady) bought in 1935 from the Chicago & North Western at Hot Springs, S. Dakota. Roger O'Keefe was working on Burlington standard gauge in the Black Hills at the time, and he says of that engine 14:

"When

the

C&NW

line

extending from Buffalo

Gap

Hot Springs washed out

in the early

1930"s.

found their engine 142 isolated in their roundhouse at Hot Springs with several bridges and some of the grade washed out between that point and their main line at Buffalo Gap, and a couple of bridges out between their roundhouse and the CBQ tracks which came into Hot Springs from the other direction. The CBQ tracks were not as heavily damaged. Probably thinking that the cost of getting the engine out would be prohibitive, the C&NW sold the engine to RCBH&W, who merely laid a track down the creek beds and took the engine out over CBQ tracks at small expense. The RCBH&W subtracted the number 2 from the 142 and it thus became RCBH&W 14. "I seem to remember working with this engine in 1929 and 1930 at Hot Springs under an agreement which required CBQ crews to make trips to Buffalo Gap over the C&NW tracks and C&NW crews to make trips to Minnekahta on CBQ tracks. The RCBH&W engine 14 was purchased and moved to Mystic sometime in 1935 by an RCBH&W engine crew. In this I am certain of my facts, as I had been promoted to conductor in 1935 and I recall making a claim and collecting a day's pay for not being used to pilot this engine and crew from Hot Springs to Mystic, our schedule rules providing that a conductor would be used in such service whereas an engineer was actually used, and had I not been promoted ( 1935) I would not have had a claim." Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe the

homes with

coal from Dictz, lines to Mystic,

to a

Crouch

could be arranged by Burlington and Crouch, the

Crouch Une's principal busibecame the hauling of Sheridan Wyoming, through the Burlington

coal and the

ness immediately

line

North Western railroad into Rapid City from either or south could not meet their freight rates. With the reduced freight rates over the Crouch line, coal could suddenly be bought for $5.00 per ton, where it had been demanding a price of $12.00 a east

where the coal cars were switched locomotive and began their danger-

ous descent down the canyon. The demand for coal was high, and with the short haul from Dcitz that

ton over the longer route that had to be traveled

152

Glenrock and Rock Springs, on the North Wyoming, Crouch Hne got the coal, almost too Western. The

from the coal beds

"The Crouch and it

a serious loss be some time before a train will be running. Mr. Crouch went over the road immediately but has not been con-

last night,

via Crawford, Nebraska,

much

coal as a matter of fact.

It is

remembered

that

day the cars jumped the track at least once and sometimes oftener. Crouch men put the cars back on the track

line suffered

will

tacted since."

the train loads were such that almost every

C. D.

the flood.

the

Carl Leedy remembers

with others the effect that May and June rainstorm had on Rapid City's private railroad. In his short history of the Crouch line, Leedy writes

"In June 1907 our weather bureau records that we had eight inches of rain. Every creek and stream was running full. The first week of June we really got a rain. The weather bureau recorded three inches a day but there was much more rain in the hills. No one had ever seen such a rain and we have never had one Uke it since. Out of 110 bridges on the road there were five small ones left. Most all of the grade was washed out, and the rails were wrapped around the trees."

Rapid

City,

glum

"That night," Carl Leedy says, "he got on and went to New York to borrow more money. Within a week he had talked someone out of the money and was on his

and kept going.

Then came

Crouch came back

but not beaten.

C&NW

way home

to start rebuilding the road.

October they had the road so that a train could go over it but it was very bad."

Leedy had worked short time during

its

Crouch hne for a had been the Chicago, Milwaukee &

for

the

construction, then

working on the survey of St. Paul Raikoad at Creston. When the flood wrecked Crouch's rails, he offered Leedy a better job as civil engineer for the Missouri River & North Western, and Leedy accepted. As emergencies appeared, Leedy found himself helping in various ways. J. O. Beebe, formerly of the Burlington Unes, was superintendent of the Crouch line and also acted as

The Rapid City Daily Journal of June

14, 1907,

reported

RCBH&W LOCOMOTIVE Heisler. A newspaper story

J. M. Riley, Almore Harper and Arthur Johnson were engineers. Crouch's son, Vern, helped

conductor.

AT DEAD WOOD ROUNDHOUSE,

NO. 7 of about 1927 appeared in the

September 1929, engine built by Rapid City Daily Journal, clipped and saved by one

men mentioned, Jim Sheriff: "An unusually heavy train, composed mostly Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railway from

of the

of oil cars was brought down this morning over the Mystic, according to General Manager R. E. Mytinger. The train, comprised of thirty-four cars including the caboose, weighed 1,476 tons, and was hauled by one small Heisler engine. Five reverse curves were made during the trip, the General Manager stated. The engineer bringing in the train this morning was Grant Tye, and the conductor was Jim Sheriff. heavy train of this kind, over such a small railway, is very unusual, Mytinger said."

Photo from collection of Harry L. Peterson, courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

.^ ^' JF^^ -m

Mi, WARREN LAMB LUMBER COMPANY NARROW GAUGE ENGINE

NO. 32, a Lima used after 1919. Other spurs went into the hills up various gulches. Sidelines went up whatever canyons where they were needed, the narrow gauge never exactly the same from one short period to another. It is not beyond possibility that some of the rails were ripped out of one canyon when the logging there was finished, to be replaced in a gulch of more timber

value.

Photo by courtesy of Joseph R. Douda

with ignition supplied by dry batteries. They carried twelve passengers, four in front and four on each side in the rear. used to put boards under cushions and let them stick out

where he could and was around the trains a lot of the time. Firemen included Bobby Ervin and Jim Martin. W. J. Armstrong was another conductor and E. L. Hurlbut was a motorman. Jack Skaggs was roadmaster along the line. With the unending troubles Skaggs must have earned his salt. The first day after they got the train running after the repairs were made for flood damage, they had a collision between a motor car that Crouch had bought for passenger service and one of the freights. The collision was near Big Bend on October 3, 1907, Carl Leedy remembers, and the freight was standing still at the time. He says he was on that motor car, and when the dust cleared away he was the only one that could walk. Everybody else was injured in some way. From reports of early day newspapers, nearly everyone promptly sued for damages. Leedy says the Rapid Canyon line had several motor cars.

back and put three more on each side. The cars had a knocked down turntable on the side so you could turn it around."

A month after the motor car wreck they had as bad a wreck as any railroad could hope to have. The Rapid City Daily Journal, November 16, 1907 gave part of

"Terrible

Death.

Disastrous Wreck

Caused by Burning Bridge. James Martin, fireman, was instantly killed and John Harper was severely injured on the Crouch Line

when

the locomotive of the plunged through a burning bridge. ... As soon as the news reached Rapid City, J. O. Bcebc secured an engine late

yesterday

east

bound

from the

train

CM&SP

and went

to the scene of

the wreck."

"The first were purchased in 1905 or They were two cylinder Fairbanks Morse cars made in Three Rivers, Michigan,

Oscar Beebe did not go alone to that wreck. He took along civil engineer Carl Leedy, Charles Crouch

1906.

154

PICTURES OF SOME OF THE EQUIPMENT

in active

use include a "cook car" which was used apparently by section men who found it necessary to stay away from town several days at a time, or by regular railroad men for different reasons. The cook car photo reproduced with this story shows Paul Brannon, cook; Abe Harter, fireman; Grant Tye, engineer; and James (Rusty) Sheriff, conductor. It is parked at a Civilian Conservation Camp at Bear Gulch, which would indicate a probable date of between 1932 and 1936 when the CCC camps were used in the Black Hills. Grant Tye worked for the Rapid Canyon Line for at least twenty years, possibly more. He appears on pictures dated from 1927 to 1944, and is remembered as an able engineer. Abe Harter was a fireman for the during the 1930's, and later was engineer on the newer Motor Car No. 5, used in the 1940's. Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

RCBH&W

himself,

Vern Crouch and Jack Skaggs.

gang, young Harry

Gandy

(later to

With

be United States

congressman from South Dakota) went along as cub reporter on the Journal. Leedy took his surveyor's

food, nothing but the urgency of need to keep

instruments to set the cutoff for the grade for a

going, until they could hardly keep their eyes

when he got there he laid it aside work with the others. Arthur Johnson was engineer on that work train with Bobby

and

new

bridge, but

to help in

salvage

Ervin as fireman.

The wreck had occurred at bridge 28.32 and happened late Saturday night about 11:00 o'clock. The bridge was one built about 26 feet high across a narrow gorge with the waters of Rapid Creek tumbling under it. Somehow the bridge had caught fire and was burning well when No. 1 1 burst around the bend going at a good pace down the gulch. Engineer Almore Harper (not John as stated in the Journal) he could not stop. He must have jumped when he saw that he was heading straight for the burning bridge, because he got off the train aUve. Fireman Jim Martin was trapped in the locomotive and went over into the chasm below

tried to stop the train, but

the bridge.

The freight was hauhng coal from Sheridan, Wyoming, for Rapid City residents, and when the engine went

down

pulled three gondolas of coal

which ignited in short order. Jim Martin didn't have a chance. W. J. Armstrong was conductor on the wrecked train, but was not injured when some of the rear cars stayed on the track. One o'clock Sunday afternoon Leedy and the after

it,

others started for the wreck.

They worked from

the

time they arrived (about 4:00 p.m.) until Tuesday

morning without stopping.

REO MOTOR CAR,

They had no

sleep,

late "ZO's. made from old automobile engine converted to rails, for RCBH&W. In 1928 the Rapid Canyon Line roundhouse at Rapid City caught on fire, and blazed away with such vigor that one man, Oscar Hansen, lost his life in the fire and the railroad lost this old motor car and two locomotives, believed to be numbers 48 and 51, both Baldwins. Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

their

them open

weary bones dragging.

About 5:00 a.m. Tuesday, after having rebuilt the bridge and picked up the accumulated freight cars at Mystic, they started for Rapid City. Before getting to Pactola they

the train

were forced to uncouple from

and run for water. The customary place

take water was two miles below Pactola where the

went under the flume of the Richards Placer Mining Company, later to be used for the Dakota

railroad

Power Company. Art Johnson was as weary as the rest of the men and they started too late for the water flume. Before they reached it, the boiler ran dry. They had to pull the fire out of the fire box. Johnson and Ervin left the engine presumably dead below Pactola and began walking back to the wreck, where they had instruments to call Rapid City for a new engine. It was a two or three mile walk on top of a two day and two night stint of unending work. When they returned to their engine again, they found the cab burned off completely. No one ever knew how the cab caught on fire. The third engine came from Rapid City up the

SOME OF THE EARLY PICTURES a few clues to men who suggest varied activities.

available give us railroad, others picture thought to be between

worked on

still

the

1933 and 1942 shows Stephen A. Hearn, manager, and Chester C. Sheriff, brakeman, standing beside an excursion train above Bear Gulch near Silver City.

Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

Crouch

line track, and Tuesday afternoon they all went home to bed and a well earned sleep. Jim Martin was dead. Harper was injured but alive. The Crouch line was the loser again. Leedy tells a story of one of the consequences

wreck which seems amusing now, but he seem so funny at the time. Crouch needed another locomotive, and managed to lease one from the Burlington railroad. With the standard gauge tracks in the canyon he could use anything he of this

says

could

didn't

get.

The Rapid City Daily

Journal, Dec.

1907,

introduces us to the incident briefly:

Beebe,

conductor; Carl Leedy, and R. J. Ervin, fireman, left last evening for Edgemont to bring to this city a freight locomotive which the local railroad has leased from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad." "J.

brakeman;

That's

WORK EQUIPMENT, RCBH&W.

Crane,

way

car. with

yon Line maintained work equipment definitely needed

all

Riley, engineer;

the Journal reported, but

Leedy

end of engine No. 7, Heisler, visible. The Rapid Cankeep the train together. Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

â&#x20AC;˘ÂŤr^ M.^.

%r^^^

-til

tells

I^ÂŤ.

^\K

A PHOTO

definitely

occurring

lished

V*^

estab-

1937

shows Engine No. 55, RCBH with an excursion picnic for the Packing House. Stand-

&W,

ing alongside the train,

RCBH&W

men

see

Carl Stoneber-

bridge carpenter; Walter Reder, roundhouse worker; Grant Tye, engineer; Stephen Hearn, manager; Rusty Sheriff, conductor; Paddy Ryan, brakeger,

man;

and Dick Braithwaite, bridge foreman. George Miller

remembered to have been is foreman of the section crew in the '30's.

Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

He was

brakeman for that trip, he Crouch was short of brakemen at the moment and they had to have somebody called a brakeman on the train before the Burhngton would more.

listed as a

explains, because

let their

engine go.

They in the

arrived in

Edgemont about

eight o'clock

evening and had to wait until one o'clock that

It was a cold and only curtains on the engine cab to keep out the wind. When they reached Mystic on the Burhngton high Une they found seventeen carloads of freight waiting to be brought to Rapid City from

night for their locomotive to arrive. night,

Mystic

with

delivery

the

new K-1.

caboose was available though the thermometer reg-

The

rear boxcar

was loaded

with merchandise, so Beebe and Leedy

made them-

below zero.

istered

selves

snug

in that

back boxcar by taking

their

one

comer with their keep warm. They

lantern with them, snuggling in one

overcoats over their heads to

reckoned without the old Crouch hoodoo.

The

railroad

was so crooked, Leedy

the engineer never could

see

the

last

and when that boxcar slipped

train,

says, that

car on his

off the track

on one of the curves and started bouncing over the Riley couldn't see what was happening. The bounce knocked out the lantern. Then in the dark, merchandise started hitting them in the face. Beebe felt for the door, trying to open it, just before

ties,

first

came

they

When

to the high bridge

Johnson's siding.

they hit the bridge the box car broke loose

JUNE

1935, James Sheriff, conductor, pausing for a chat New York detective at the Mystic depot before the detective continued his journey westward on the Burlington

with a

from

that spot.

Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

from the train and automatically on top of the bridge.

set the

brake right

Beebe pulled the door open and Leedy started The situation was becoming intolerable. All they could think of was getting out of that box car. Just in time Beebe looked out the door into the moonlight. He hollered, and grabbed Leedy to stop him. One jump out of that open box car door into the night would have landed them eighteen feet below in the creek bottom. When the car broke loose from the train, Leedy for the crack of light.

RCBH&W, A PHARMACY EXCURSION

PICNIC, 1929, just before entering Dark Canyon. "Seventy-seventh annual convention American Pharmaceutical Association 1929." A Burlington time table of 1927, July- August, lists the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railroad under a group of South Dakota Branch Lines, though it is believed that the Burlington never actually owned a foot of the line. Nevertheless, the information in the timetable is authentic in its mileage, times, and stations. It is reproduced as one of the few timetables that remain with accurate information on this road.

RAPID aXY, BLACK HILLS

WESTERN RAILROAD

R. E. Mytinger. General Manager, Rapid City, S. D.

With

its

Daily

Tabic No. 83

P.M.

4:15

12:30

4:45

1:00

5:07

1:22

5:30 5:40

1:45

1:55

6:25

2:50

20 34

this schedule, the

way from Edgemont

Daily

A.M.

Miles

Lv.â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mystic

P.M.

Ar. 10:50

3:15

Silver City

10:20

Pactola

10:00

2:40 2:25

Big Bend

9:15

1:45

Hisega

9:00

1:30

8:00

12:30

Ar.â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Rapid

Rapid Canyon

Daily

Lv.

City

Mystic in time to meet the 11:45 a.m. Burlington train the 4:00 p.m. Burlington train on its way back to Edgemont.

line got into

Deadwood, or

Photo by Rice, by courtesy of James Sheriff

wasn't particular about incidentals such as that. One day Leedy and Crouch were doing some switching in the Rapid City yards below the smelter, moving cars into position for the North Western goat to take

on the train were set. Leedy and Beebe cHmbed out of their marooned boxcar carefully, got on the cars ahead, and continued into Rapid City, leaving the last car on the bridge. says, all the brakes

Leedy a

little

recalls the time

when he and Crouch

switching at the ore

smelter back

to the smelter

the

while they had the

out of work, but they had the engine sitting there

School of Mines in Rapid City. The smelter had been known as the National Smelter and served various mines above Rapid City, but when Crouch began running his train he made a deal by which

Crouch had the idea. up to the smelter and bring down some empty cars," he said. Leedy protested, "I'm not smart enough to bring them down. If we run out of air wc would have a idle.

"Let's go

the name was changed to the Standard Smelting Company with a proposed five hundred tons of ore to be carried to It

was a

by Crouch Hne

railroad

tracks

Western

tracks,

reaching

fine

cars.

nice setup except for one flaw.

on the east edge of town. After a full cars in place and had run

did

mess." "All right!

The only

Ill

run her," says Crouch.

"You

fire."

smelter were North and Crouch was required to either turn over his cars completely to North Western for that short haul from the end of his line to the smelter, or have a North Western man on board the

quote Lecdy's

own words

for

what happened

"We had

go up west of town to the and come back on track. The side track that went to the to

junction of the

C&NW

when he did the job himself. Leedy says he used to take a hand in running an engine for Crouch occasionally, just for the thrill of it. He wasn't really an engineer, but Crouch

C&NW

smelter was opposite the School of Mines.

picked up Ollie Cleghorn at Eighth Street and started for the smelter traveling east on The Crouch Line the C&NW main line.

158

fÂąfmM%

y-k.

"P^^

engine had sharp flanges caused by backing up so much on the sharp curves while on construction work. As we were backing on the main line, one of the sharp flanges of the drivers caught the switch point of another siding and our Uttle engine jumped the track. There we sat exactly crosswise of the

C&NW

main

line.

"Down

the

coal

chute

the

C&NW

bound for Deadwood was taking coal. Ollie Cleghom went down and told the conductor our predicament. They uncoupled from their train with two class "Q" engines and a bad disposition, and jerked our freight train

engine around until we were able to get back on the track by the use of wrecking frogs. It took six months to repair our

little it

engine."

Bank in Rapid City was interested, and Crouch persuaded Halley to give him credit amounting to 590,000 for buying back his railroad. With the $90,000 Crouch thought he had it made. An attorney from New York bid $91,000. Undaunted, Crouch asked postponement of the sale for two hours to allow him to raise more money, and was granted National

the

postponement.

"$95,000," says Crouch. Without hesitation the response came from the New Yorker, "$96,000." Crouch was licked. The New York man was representing the Lisbon Syndicate Company and was obviously prepared to buy the Missouri River & North Western at one thousand dollars over anything Crouch could offer. There was nothing Crouch could do but

house

name

in the early spring of

1908.

Crouch had no intention of letting go if he could help it. James Halley

GRANT TYE AND JAMES (RUSTY) SHERIFF, near the watertank eighteen miles out of Rapid City above Johnson's Siding, standing beside engine No. 51. a Baldwin.

Halley attending a

wedding in town, talked him into another $5,000 and went back to the sale.

With luck such as this Crouch couldn't last. In his creditors began demanding payment of his bills and Crouch was forced into receivership. C. O. Bailey, Sioux Falls, was appointed receiver. The sale was held at the Pennington County court1908 back

He found

bow

out of the picture.

management was what Crouch did but he

far as actual personal

cerned, that

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

con-

left his

up and two manageeven the men drawing pay checks under

so indeUbly connected with the railroad

his railroad

Rapid Canyon

of the First

ments

later

that forty years

MOTOR CAR ON RCBH&W

(GAS CAR) in Rapid Canyon. About 1940 Motor Car No. 5 and trailer No. 6 were bought for passenger service into Rapid Canyon. The tone of the line was gradually becoming more casual, with emphasis on the scenic beauties and accessibility of picnic spots in Rapid Canyon for Sunday excursionists. The motor car was much more stream-lined in appearance than the old Reo conversion ever hoped to be and had little resemblance to the earlier 1907 motor car. Like some of the earlier cars, it, too, was a Fairbanks Morse. No. 5 with its trailer No. 6 were shown in magazine advertisements to entice picnickers to the cool, shady recesses along Rapid Creek. One such full page blurb gives a condensed description of the situation, calling attention to the motor car in Rapid Canyon on the RCBH&W, a road "recognized as the crookedest railroad in the United States, crossing Rapid Creek 105 times in 26 miles. A gas car makes a 44 mile round trip each day and will drop passengers off anywhere on the route and pick them ujwn the return, allowing them ample time for fishing. Round trip fare $1.05 to $2.70.

This makes an ideal day's outing

at a

very small cost."

160

another

name were Even now in

railroad

still

calling

when

"the

no longer exist in the canyon, people say "the Crouch line" in preference to any other designation. Crouch built it to Mystic. As far as the public was conCrouch Une."

cerned,

1964,

rails

has always been his railroad.

the court decided against

company had

them and the Burlington

to take their loss along with the others.

Rapid City men

day swear that C. O. Bailey, $19,000 for his services in the lawyers got the next cut, and the of that

receiver, got the first deal,

the five

creditors got

what was

left.

Lisbon Syndicate sent W. E. Moore from 1908-1920: Rapid City, Black Hills 8C Western,

Under Lisbon Syndicate

The

sale to

Lisbon Syndicate

Company changed

several things in the matter of the

Rapid Canyon

Carl Leedy washed his hands of railroad-

railroad.

ing and turned to another business. Billy Armstrong went to work for the Burlington. Others who had worked with Crouch on his magnificent adventure left for new jobs, too, but there were always more to keep the trains going. G. E. Macomber was president of the Lisbon

Syndicate,

with Charles E. Hoyt,

secretary.

The

receivers tried to be fair with creditor's accounts, but

there wasn't

enough for anybody to get more than

twenty cents on the dollar. The Burlington Railroad

Crouch had held moneys for freight shipin Rapid City without transferring such moneys to them, and claimed preferment, but stated that

ments received

MOTOR CAR

WITH

the road.

RCBH&W

NO. 5 TRAILER NO. 6 at depot in Rapid City, the only depot owned by the as they used the Burhngton depot in Mystic. Abe Harter, engineer; Bob Mytinger, general manager; Ed Workman, conductor. This motor car and trailer was used in last decade of the line's operation (1940'47) and shortly after the line was abandoned the motor car and trailer caught fire and burned, the only piece salvaged being the bronze foot sill off the door of the trailer, now owned by James Sheriff.

RCBH&W

New

remembered that managed the who not only fellow railroad, now re-named the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western, but in his spare time organized the Rapid City Elks Lodge. Rapid City liked W. E. Moore. In a way, it was really a pity that under his management the Rapid Canyon line, respectfully referred to by its new name, continued to operate at a loss. Moore was manager until 1912, when he was replaced by D. H. Crary who assumed the title and responsibilities of vice president and general manager. It is remembered by early railroaders that Chauncey Swarthout was an engineer on the RCBH&W between 1909 and 1920, with Mike Whalen his conductor and brakeman. Carl Leedy's brother Harry was engineer on the Une along those years, too, a motorman in 1908 and then an engineer for about ten years. Leedy's records show that more

York to manage Moore was a fine

Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

RCBH&W

NO. 15, RAPID CITY, S. DAKOTA, March 18. 1948. All equipment, rolling stock and locomotives, was sold to Hyman-Michaels, Chicago, who also bought all records of any sort connected to the old road. It is understood today that everything salable for scrap was sold by them, and everything else destroyed. Postcard from collection of Joseph C. Hardy, courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

motor cars were acquired during the managership of the Lisbon Syndicate

There was a sawmill or lumber camp of

Company

"In 1910 the company bought a new Fairbanks Morse car which carried thirty passengers, with a four cylinder engine. It

was very serviceable. "Then they bought a General Electric car which was the forerunner of the present diesel locomotives. It was as large as an ordinary passenger coach, had a big electric generator in the front and was controlled the same as the diesels arc today. They were just trying it out when they collided with the east bound train at Big Bend and it was shipped back to the factory. Electric car was in a ring in 1910 or '11.

headon

the northwest corner of town.

gauge

The General

collision, occur-

vcy

was about 1909 when we rails

first

Lanphere-Hinrichs

had a short railroad of their own, on which they hauled logs to McGee's Sawmill. In due process of time, Lanphere-Hinrichs Plant was sold to Warren Lamb Lumber Company, and a third rail was laid to McGee's Sawmill to make possible the operation of narrow gauge lumber cars on that stretch between McGee's Sawmill and Warren Lamb's main office and lumber yard at Rapid City. That narrow gauge third rail on the Crouch line was used until all the timber was cut in the vicinity of McGee's mill, and then the third rail was

They used the G.E. car short time. "After that they bought a new Fairbanks Morse car which pulled a trailer and used that for many years." a

sorts

up Dark Canyon called McGee's Sawmill, named after John McGee who ran a sawmill at that point on Rapid Creek before the railroad was finished, which would establish McGee's Sawmill as operating before 1906. McGee's Sawmill can still be found on old maps under that name. At the same time the Lanphere-Hinrichs Plant was a lumber yard on the edge of Rapid City toward eleven miles

hear of narrow

connection with the Rapid Canyon

partially

line.

162

removed, the track being

re-laid

up Beaches

draw, the

draw

first

Dark Canyon

east of Lockhart's

ness

do not have records of the Rapid Canyon Line under Lisbon Syndicate management other than its bonds and coupons, but it is common knowledge that the railroad was not a financial success at that time.

May

1920, another of the Black Hills

spring floods roared less

repeated

down

the gulch

and more or

men

odd miles were

took notice.

just

Though

thirty-

its

about the shortest railroad on

record in the territory, the line was important to

rates

City. at

was instrumental

minimum by

Burlington. North Western and

Rapid

City.

keeping freight

competition between the

Milwaukee

lines into

some Wyoming.

offered the shortest distance to

and beyond to was regarded by Rapid City residents as an access road to some of the most beautiful scenery and picnic spots in the Black HlUs. Rapid City stood to lose something of value if the Canyon line was points in the Black HiUs It

lost.

ENGINE NO.

cannot be said that Rapid City busi-

one body

act as

in all cases, they did so

their

group of community leaders got heads together and offered the Lisbon Syndi-

cate

$50,000 for the

this

time.

accepted, selling

and Rapid

railroad.

all rights

Lisbon Syndicate

way through

the canyon

City.

1920-1947: Rapid City, Black Hills 8C Western

Under Rapid City Stockholders

The Lisbon Syndicate Company

had no sentimental value attached to the road as Crouch had had, and instead of trying to fix up the rails and bridges, they decided to junk it. At the announcement of abandonment, Rapid City business

men

devastation of the railbeds of the

its

earUer 1907 flood.

Rapid

Though

Quarry (not

)

was necessary

deal.

Common

raised.

buy bonds

to finance

stock was issued and the

James Halley stepped

into the picture with

an option to buy the bonds, and was elected treas-

new company which retained the same Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railway, with the added caption "Rapid Canyon Line" on its equipment and letterheads. Other men buying bonds at that time included the Syndicate's own man, W. E. Moore, D. H. Crary, Frank Ruch, Robert Mytinger, Mr. Raymond, H. A. Brome, and others including the bigger stockholders James Halley. George P. Bennett, C. J. Buell. Warren Lamb Lumber Company, A. C. Hunt, and I. M. Humphrey. In the shuffle of stock during the next few years, a number of men sold their holdings in the company until it is beUeved that the last six urer of the

name

RCBH&W,

believed to be dated 1944, from comparison of the dates of men's employee status 55, the railroad. The No. 55, a second-hand Baldwin, was in front of the Rapid City depot with the men posed in front of it. Railroaders included Grant Tye, engineer; Bud Harrison, fireman; Ed Munglow, night foreman; Jack Reder. master mechanic; an unidentified boiler maker; Harold Eton, a roundhouse man; Stone, machinist; A. C. Johnson, fireman and engineer; Abe Harter, fireman and engineer; Paddy Ryan, brakeman,

Tommy

and Jim

the

money was

Sheriff, conductor.

Photo by courtesy of James Sheriff

named were

finally the majority stockholders with

final control.

D. H. Crary had been general manager

under Lisbon Syndicate, but

1920 with the

reor-

ganization Robert Mytinger took the job.

Warren Lamb Lumber Company had been cutting and hauling logs south of Rapid City on National Forest land and in Custer State Park on a lumber-lease, hauling them down its own narrow gauge rails from the logging area to Fairburn, approximately thirty miles south of Rapid City. The Chicago & North Western came from Fremont, Nebraska, to Rapid City through Fairburn, and Warren Lamb had a contract with the North Western whereby they could load logs on specially equipped flat cars at Fairburn, and North Western hauled them into the lumber pond at Rapid City. The date when they began this Fairburn spur cannot

S. P.

Covert, North Western yardmaster in Rapid

City from

1919

special log cars in

March 1928, remembers those some detail. He says that the

North Western hauled frorn twenty to twenty-five cars of logs a day for Warren Lamb, which necessitated a special crew to handle them for a

CNW

while.

Somebody thinking

in the North Western yards did some on the log problem and came up with

about as ingenious a car as could be desired. Ordinary flat cars were used, Covert says, but equipped with special apparatus.

Four timbers were bolted

across the floor of the car, two centered broadly

across one end and the other two balancing them on the other end, though the spacing of the four was

be determined

less even. From the heavy timbers, steel were bolted to form a sort of U-shaped cradle, across the top of each upright pair of rails a chain

logs

being fastened that hooked in the middle.

at this time, but they were hauling on that short stretch above Fairburn when the Rapid City men bought the Crouch line in 1920 and continued to do so until about 1926 or '27.

more or rails

side of the car, the four upright rails in

On one were hinged

such a manner that they could be held upright

RCBH&W CABOOSE

NO. 4 AT MYSTIC August 22, 1947. The Rapid Canyon line and its supplementary narrow gauge logging rails were the last of the small railroad operations in the Black Hills from a utilitarian standpoint. It was a line that had more than its share of troubles, but one that belonged to Rapid City with an indefinable attachment that left a lump in the throat of many a man or woman in town when the rails were pulled from their precarious roadbed. It traversed a canyon of great beauty. The Rapid Canyon line had its importance, and should be remembered in a history of Blacic Hills railroads. Photo by courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

r y

•

»-.^Ji

-*.-*s

^1^

'^'¥.

J^ f^}^

RCBH&W LOCOMOTIVE NO.

51 at Rapid City, August 1934.

Standard gauge.

Photo from collection of Harry Peterson, courtesy of Roger O'Keefe

during loading of the sixteen-foot logs but

when

ties

unloading was necessary the chain could be un-

The

hooked, the one side of four uprights lowered to an inclined position above the logs rolled out of that car in It

worked

pretty

taking longer to to

unhook

lumber pond, and the about ten minutes time.

Covert remembers,

slick,

time,

the heavy top chains than

believed that

Lamb Lumber Company was

getting logs

cylinders

Warren from the

1926 or

'27,

the

territory

on the

wheel with the

above

ren

That cam shaft revolved result that the

in a right-

movement

of the

Shay was about the

Lamb Company. The narrow gauge

rails

existed for the use of

the lumber industry, but were vitally dependent

on Rapid Canyon Une standard gauge rails, both in transfer from McGee's Sawmill, and in the third railed section below Tittle Springs. Once again, we cannot continue the narrow gauge history without

above Rapid City. Warren Lamb Lumber Company was one of the majority stockholders in the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railway, or Rapid Canyon Line. It seemed reasonto the foothills

company should use

Uke an ordinary locomotive, on the cam shaft on the axle

on wheels and very slow. There was one four wheel 4-40 Atlantic type borrowed from Burlington and used by RCBH&W, high wheeled but not very good in performance. All narrow gauge locomotives were owned by the War-

transferred their whole lumbering operation

able that the

side

noisiest thing

Fairburn was considered logged out, and Warren

Lamb

any other type of railroad to the wheels, no

angled direction from the forward

the gulches.

In the year

had various engines, including a

the piston rod working

Rapid Canyon and tributary gulches around McGee's Sawmill by transferring logs to the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western standard gauge cars after hauling them to the canyon line on its narrow gauge rails in

logging operations

They were geared

of the wheels.

same

its

The Shay engines were something

entirely different than

locomotive.

often

their cradle.

the

RCBH&W

couple of Shays.

unload the logs once they began rolling out of

there in connection with

wherever the opportunity appeared.

the

following the standard gauge of the canyon.

the railroad facili-

165

There was a confidential understanding between Rapid City, Black Hills & Western and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy that gave the short line

Many

trucks could be remounted as flat cars.

certain advantages that

abandoned North Western and Burlington narrow gauge cars were put on sidings around the Rapid Canyon territory, where they remained inac-

wise.

tive until

the

it would not have had otherFor instance, early railroad men say that the Burlington gave the Rapid Canyon line four days to unload and return Burlington freight cars, that the Burlington and the RCBH&W had a private agreement regarding freight rates when carried over the combined roads that resulted in drastically reduced freight rates in comparison to what North Western and Milwaukee roads could offer. All records of the Rapid City, Black Hills & Western were destroyed when the line was scrapped, so these

One the

Black "Rusty" Sheriff, is Rapid City, working for Chito railroaders in the

months, then spent the

six

locomotives go.

Nye, General Manager.

rest

connection

Stoneberger's

with

gives the dates

the

RCBH&W

Dakota." The upper

left

corner gives the

Executive Committee and Officers, including on the S.

Halley, chairman, John

A. Boland and P. W. Loomis. Officers are listed as John A. Boland, president; P. W. Loomis, vice president; A. S. Halley, treasurer; P. retary;

Nye, auditor

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which

fact that with

of those

Web

Hill, sec-

A. Hearn, general manager; and

No.

was

built

immediately establishes the

Mr. Nye signing himself

as general

manager

rather than auditor that there must have

been

recent

change

the

office

general

manager.

The Warren Lamb Lumber Company had

Sheriff says that Heisler engine.

Executive Committee A.

twenty-one years as a conductor. of a freak

business

City, So.

1964 in cago & North Western Railway. He has a collection of old photographs of the Rapid Canyon Line that would do justice to any railroad fan, and has given permission to copy a number of them for this history. He began working for the RCBH&W in 1923, he says, stayed with them for twenty-one years before he left for a six months' stay on the Pacific Coast in 1944, then came back to Rapid City to begin working for the C&NW. He was a brakeman for first

go into

1942.

1934 to August 1939, during which time he worked as "section laborer, brakeman, bridge carpenter, and bridge foreman." The upper right corner is captioned "Rapid Canyon Line, Rapid City, Black Hills & Western Railroad, Rapid

Hills for the past forty years as

the

recommendation He had left the carpenter and house-

a letter of

Railroad as April

of their operations.

living in

building

and the Burlington existed, and other newspaper items of the period substantiate the closeness

still

line

for himself in 1939, but when World War II began December 1941 he asked for a letter of recommendation from the company, and got it. The letter is dated May 21, 1942, and is signed

line

known

railroad

the

Nevertheless, the cooperation between the Crouch

Sheriff,

of the few authentic records available for

Rapid Canyon

written for Carl Stoneberger in

reports are hearsay only today.

James

needed.

sort

misfortune of two spectacular

with

fires,

one

and the other a couple of years later. with the fact that the territory around

pistons on one side, cylinders on the other to leave a

V-shaped effect, but was a powerful hog that gave good service. It cost some $25,000, which seems a considerable sum when one remembers the seven and eight thousand dollar narrow gauges used by the

the

1931

Combined its

lumber-

Canyon and adjacent valleys became of lesser value to the company as the logs were taken out of the woods with a corresponding leased lands up Rapid

drop

the need for a railroad in that area, the

earlier railroads.

Ray Shore was tendent of the

Canyon

no longer served as great a purpose in The advent of automobiles and improved highways opened a much wider territory for scenic and picnicking use to Sunday wanderers. Coal in Rapid City residences was replaced by nat-

Assistant Auditor and Superin-

RCBH&W

from March 1924

De-

cember 1926. In 1928 the North Western narrow gauge tracks above Deadwood were abandoned, and in 1930 all of the other narrow gauges in the Black Hills controlled

some time in the late 20's or The combination of all changes simply meant

ural gas for heating 30's.

by the Burlington Railroad. The locomotives narrow gauges

of the North Western and Burlington

that the

were scrapped, but a considerable amount of rolling equipment was sold to Warren Lamb Lumber for

Black

some of the was and others such

use on their logging operations,

rolling

stock being usable as

as ore

cars

or passenger cars valuable only

that

line

lumber hauling.

RCBH&W,

Hills,

had seen

like its

the other railroads in the

time.

In 1947, real estate values through Rapid City

and Canyon Lake over the RCBH&W right of way had increased to such an extent that the railroad was worth more dead than alive. It was agreed to aban-

the

166

don the sell

line,

both standard and narrow gauge, and

the right of

way

1933 BurUngton Division Freight and Passenger agent in charge of the Black Hills district. James and Chester Sheriff both went to work for the Chicago & North Western. Seven years later James (Rusty) Sheriff gained into railroading with the Burlington again in

when he became

for real estate purposes.

That grand old Heisler No. 7, work engine from sometime in the 1920's, was still in good shape, and was sold to an iron smelter in Birmingham, Alabama. The men still working on the old Rapid Canyon

nationwide publicity when he saved the lives of a

when the line some of them going into other types of work, some signing with other railroads. Asa Johnson became a fireman for the Chicago & North line

scattered in various directions

woman and

shut down,

Western.

Bud Harrison found

her children by pushing them off a

shallow trestle to keep them from being crushed by

The

story

was

reprinted in newspapers from Rapid City to

New

the

a job to his liking

approaching

freight

them.

York and back.

where the government project of Fort Randall dam was getting under way. D. W. Crary, vice president and general manager of the RCBH«&W between 1912 and 1920, had gone back at Pickstown,

the

S.D.,

Now the Rapid Canyon Line is only a memory and a few railroad grades still identifiable in the canyon.

played a part that

will

be remembered.

RAPID CANYON LINE— STANDARD GAUGE (Listed according to chronological use)

Engine

No. 1

Date in Use

Builder

Shop No. Date

Other Information

Built

Disposition

1891-93

Sold 1898 to lumber com-

pany •7

1905-06

Motor

Fairbanks Morse

car, built at

Tacoma, Wash.

Three Rivers, Mich.,

2 cylinders, dry batteries, 12 passen-

Wrecked

gers.

Second-hand from CM&SP Railroad Bought by Crouch. K-1, from Burlington Railroad.

1907

1908

Baldwin

32667

1908

Baldwin

32668

1908

Baldwin

MR&NW Two for

1910

Fairbanks Morse

1910

General Electric

Mikado

2-8-2

1910

type, 20x28-42, built for Railroad, used short time.

driver type, 2-8-2, 20x28-48. Built used short time.

MR&NW,

1907, scrapped.

Cab burned

1907.

Sold to Gilmore burg Railroad.

Wrecked, then sold

Pitts-

to Gil-

more & Pittsburgh

Rr.

30 Passengers, 4-cylinder engine motor car.

Motor

car, electric generators in front.

Head-on

1910,

collision

returned to factory.

1911

Fairbanks Morse

49 50

1915-39

1916-28

Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin

42092

1911

Motor

1915

2-6-2, built for

car with trailer.

RCBH&W.

2-6-2

43386

1916

for RCBH&W 16x24 44 dr., 70,000 wt. Reconverted motor car, from Reo auto mobile engine. 2-6-2,

built

Burned

roundhouse

fire.

cyls.,

1920

1920-28

Shay Baldwin

35630

1910

Formerly Sumter Lumber Co. No. 2. 2-6-2, 15x24 cyls., 44 dr., 70,000 wt.

1927

Baldwin

35261

1910

2-6-0, 20x24-52.

1920's

Terminal

Burned house

Burned

1928

round-

fire.

roundhouse

fire.

Built for the Illinois Railroad Co. as their No.

10.

1928-34

Mack

1928-47

Heisler

603

1928-33

Baldwin

60009

1922

Burlington No. 501, sold to the RCBH &W. Returned to Burlington 9-1933.

1566

1928

BuQt for

11503

1891

Leased from Burlington 12-1-28. Class

RCBH&W,

cost $25,000.

Scrapped June 1934. Sold to a Birmingham, Ala. iron smelter, 1947.

B&MR

K-1, 4-6-0 oil burner. Former 256. 19x24 in. cylinders, 64 in. drivers, 18,400 lbs. tractive effort, 92,-

1578

1928-33

Baldwin

39748

1913

900 lbs. weight on drivers, total weight of 121,400 lbs. Steam pressure 160 lbs.

Scrapped February 1933.

Leased from Burlington 12-1-28. G-3 class, 0-6-0 oil burner. 20x24 in. cylinders, 52 in. drivers, 28,200 lbs. tractive effort, total weight of 122,500 lbs. Steam pressure 180 lbs.

Scrapped February 1933.

167

1938

3296

Schenectady

1890

Bought

Hot

Springs,

D. from

C&NW,

then No. 142. 4-6-0. Dimensions, 19x24 in. Cyls.. 59 in. drivers, 24,900 lbs. tractive effort, 120,400 lbs. weight, 170 lbs. boiler pressure.

940

Schenectady

1940-47

Fairbanks Morse

665

1942-46

West Burlington

3301

1890

C&NW, No. 648. 4-6-0. Class S-2. 19x24 in. cyls., 59 in. drivers. 24.900 lbs. tractive effort, 120,400 lbs. weight, 170 lbs. boiler

Bought from

pressure.

Motor 1896

Burned 1947.

car, gas.

Leased from

Burlington 9-1-42. K-2 class, 4-6-0 oil burner, former B&

No.

52. 19x24 in. cyls., 64 in. 20,700 lbs. tractive effort, 100,700 lbs. weight on drivers, total weight of 128.550 lbs. Steam pressure 180 lbs.

Scrapped December 1946.

Leased from Burlington 9-1-42. former B&MR No. 90. Class K-4. 4-6-0 oil burner. 19x26 in. cyls., 64 in. drivers. 25.000 lbs. tractive effort, 121,400 lbs. weight on drivers, total weight of 156.600 lbs. Steam pressure 200 lbs.

Scrapped December 1950.

drivers.

707

1942-50

Havelock

Chicago, Milwaukee 1293

Mason

1368

Grant

1901

St.

Paul Railroad leased the following two locomotives to but dates of use have not been determined:

439

1872 1880

RCBH&W.

H-3, 4-4-0. H-3, 4-4-0.

NARROW GAUGE LOCOMOTIVES 10

1919-26

Lima

2444

1911

8x12 Cylinders, 27 in. drivers. No. 10 was built for Lacey Lumber Company. No. 10 was originally 30 in. gauge and was rebuilt to 36 in. gauge when sold to the Warren Lamb Lumber Co. Logging engine

1912-?

Lima

2621

1912

8x10 Cylinders,

used

Fairburn. 271/2 in. drivers.

Built

for Lanphere-Hinrichs.

Heisler

1919-?

Lima

3029

1919

8x12 Cylinders, 29 lbs.

in.

drivers,

64,000

weight.

168

-2if*«'«*;.:>v ALL

THAT

IS LEFT of a cut and trestle up Deadwood Gulch. narrow gauge Robinson, Secretary of South Dakota Historical Society, examining crumbling foundation of

C&NW

1958

Will

trestle.

Photo by Fielder

Chapter Six

FINIS During the summer of 1957 an in the

Black

Hills, calling

enterprising group of

men

started a

new narrow gauge

near Keystone) the "Black Hills Central," their purpose being to commemorate the roads which opened the American west and to preserve a day

when

railroading

mode of travel for railroad fans of today. The equipment was assembled from Alaska, Colorado, Chicago, none gauge ore runs and mountain switchbacks of the Black It

may be no

activity

a five mile stretch from Hill City to "Oblivion" (a spot in the woods

rail-

exciting

from the narrow

because that rolling stock was gone. Fort Pierre, the Deadwood Central,

Hills,

kin to the roaring days of the Black Hills

& North Western

men and

was an

wood and coal consuming hogs, but the railroad is a place of increasing interest to many people. In 1961 W. B. Heckman, President of the Black Hills Central, began extending a 5.2 mile segment of standard gauge rails from Oblivion over a few hills to Keystone, thus linking Keystone and Hill City by rail. The complete line is in full operation now. Near the Hill City depot Mr. Heckman has a building housing a complete operating model scale railroad on one floor, a railroad curio shop and model railroad museum on the ground level. He has accumulated model railroad equipment dating from some of the earliest made. Nevertheless, just as the little "J. B. Haggin" locomotive was not the real thing but the forerunner of the first railroads in the Black Hills, the Black Hills Central is not the real thing either, the Elkhorn or the Chicago

fire

burning, cinder spewing,

but an afterthought.

abandoned industrial railroad grades. No you search, you may find an occasional tie, rotted and useless. Rarely, spikes are found near the grade, but most of them were melted for scrap some thirty years ago. Some of the grades have been obliterated by modem highways over their right of way. Others in more All over the Black Hills the wanderer can find the

rails are left.

remote portions of the

No more silenced.

Was lies

will

hills still

hold their original slopes.

you hear the whistle of the locomotives rounding the bends. The bells have been

The hoggers and shacks and

fireboys are gone.

worth it? All the cold chilled fingers and the broken legs, the cars tumbled in the guland the burning cabs? The runaway engines and the brakies desperately trying to stop the headit

long flights?

There was the camaraderie of men who knew they were building a civilization There was a pulsing power in those little hogs that gave a man a feeling of being a giant on the earth. Adventure, glory, challenge lay in every day's run through the canyons and over the mountain tops. This was a life that made a man out of a boy in short order. Pouring sand on the rails to roughen the ice was all in the day's work, and the day's work was something grand and special that not only kept a man awake, as one old timer remarks wryly, but kept him so interested that there was no time for boredom. No time. Only forty-two short years and the whole narrow gauge thing was ended. When the last rail was ripped out of the Black Hills, something great was gone. No man will say now what it was but they know, and any man who was lucky enough to spend a part of his life on the Black Hills narrow gauge tracks has memories that he would not trade for all the gold that he hauled in the hills. Those who worked for the rails for that entire period look back on it

Look

in the

again.

Black Hills of South Dakota.

with shining eyes and a lump in their throats. it was worth it. Angelo Rich spoke for every narrow gauge railroader who ever worked the Black Hills when he answered our question the other day. We were talking to him of the old days when the railroads were running full blast. As we looked at him we could see the pride in his eyes of a job well done, the memories he cherished, and we said somewhat enviously, "Fifly-five years on the railroad, Mr. Rich. And I'll bet you would do it all over again." He answered, and he meant every word, "1 just wish I could."

Yes,

170

BLACK HILLS CENTRAL RAILROAD.

"Klondike Casey" locomotive pulling passenger cars at Oblivion, July In the seven years since they began, they have established a narrow gauge railroad that has attracted thousands of visitors during the summer months. The train begins in Hill City at its own private depot, whistles through the hill to its destination at Oblivion where railroad equipment is gradually being gathered for the delight of railroad enthusiasts, and continues to Keystone before returning to Hill City. 1961.

Photo by Fielder

Ackno wledgjinents Credit must be given to Jim Bullard, Eldon, Mo.,

Hanke, Executive Assistant, Public Relations,

L. F.

CBQ,

man who first began collecting narrow gauge material. Some of the letters in his possession date

back twenty years or more, from 1934

Don Howe,

as the

to the year

1958, with signatures of early railroaders

have died since the

Mr. Bullard

letters

were written.

in his zeal for collecting

who

Illinois.

Wyoming.

Public Relations Director, Homestake

Mining Company, Lead, S. Dakota. C. Inser, Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation,

Aiding

Chicago,

L. Hart, Gillette,

narrow gauge

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

W. W. Johnson, Deadwood,

have been Roger O'Keefe, Bremerton, Wash-

ington; Joseph R.

S. Dakota. Richard E. Karschnik, Chicago, Illinois. F. V. Koval, Assistant to President, CNW, Chicago,

the other.

facts

Douda, Westmont, Illinois; Richard Karschnik, Chicago, Illinois; and Burlington railroaders scattered from one end of America to

Illinois.

word of thanks is also extended to S. P. Covert. Rapid City, for his help in securing North Western and Rapid Canyon material; to Carl Leedy, Rapid City, for his early records on the Crouch Line; to James Sheriff, Rapid City, for information on the RCBH&W; to Angelo Rich, Deadwood, for North Western dates and memories; to Mrs. Edna

Deadwood

Ferguson, access to

all

allowing

Western officials for their cooperation releasing facts and figures used in this book.

complete

list

R. Luety, Public Relations Dept., C. A.

full

Owen

Burlington Lines, Chicago, E. F. S.

CBQ,

State Highway Commission, Pierre, M. C. Poor, Denver, Colorado. George Redfern, Yakima, Washington.

CBQ

Dakota.

Pierre, S.

Illinois.

Com-

Dakota

New

George M.

Sittig, Hollis,

C. L.

DeSoto, Missouri.

Eph

Stall,

Historical Society,

Dakota.

R. B. Rowbotham, Deadwood,

Dakota.

York.

Stewart, Ravenna, Nebraska.

H. H. Urback, Superintendent Motive Power,

CBQ,

Havelock, Nebraska. Otis Williams,

Adams Museum, Deadwood,

Dakota.

Boston, Mass.

Chicago,

C&S

Ry., Denver, Colo.

aid

111.

Railroad, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Those who gave information, by personal interview include:

pictures, or other

Keith Boylan, Piedmont,

Dakota.

Covert, Rapid City,

Dakota.

S. P.

Frederick A. H. Hall, the Newberry Library, Chicago,

Society,

H. W. Ridgway, Superintendent Motive Power,

Al V. Gavin, Alliance, Nebraska.

Graham,

Pierre,

Dakota.

Will G. Robinson, South

Inc.,

Commission,

A. H. Pankow, Publicity Director, South Dakota

merce Commission, Pierre, S. Dakota. George A. Dodson, MSGT, Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. George Doran, Ft. Pierre, S. Dakota. Joseph R. Douda, Westmont, Illinois. A. E. Erixson, Chief Dispatcher, CBQ, Alliance, Nebraska. Charles E. Fisher, President, Railway and Locomo-

E. A.

Utilities

Dakota.

Pierre, S.

Nebraska.

E. Flynn, Vice President,

Norman, Public

111.

Roger O'Keefe, Bremerton, Washington. J. Pahlas, South Dakota Historical

Danker, Nebraska State Historical So-

Historical Society,

Moody, Superintendent Motive Power, C&S

Clark

E. N. Dennison, District Supervisor, Interstate

tive

Chicago,

Eldon Martin, Vice President and General Counsel,

Dakota.

Davies, Bookseller, Chicago,

CBQ,

Ry., Denver, Colorado.

ton, Ontario.

ciety, Lincoln,

Chadron,

Illinois.

James Bullard. Eldon, Missouri. John C. Carroll, Des Moines, Iowa. N. R. Collins, Manager, Locomotive Sales Engineering, Canadian Locomotive Company, Ltd., Kings-

Donald

Chicago,

Nebraska.

William Baird, Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

CNW,

G. A. Linn, Division Engineer,

of letters received include those

Covert, Rapid City,

CBQ,

Illinois.

written by:

S. P.

Dakota.

G. F. Link, Advertising Manager,

and documents pertaining to railroads; and to Burlington and

North

Dakota.

Carl Leedy, Rapid City,

early files

Black Hills

the

for

librarian,

C. Lang, Edgemont,

George Doran, Fort Pierre, S. Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Reese Fockler, Piedmont.

Illinois.

Dakota.

Mrs.

Roy

Fockler, Lead,

Dakota.

Mrs. Grant Hamilton, Lead, S. Dakota. James Jelbert, Lead, S. Dakota.

George R. (Dick) Johnson, Roubaix, S. Dakota. Elmer A. Johnston, Deadwood, S. Dakota. Carl Leedy, Rapid City, S. Dakota. Mrs. Marion Lutey, Lead, S. Dakota. Fritz Merritt, Rapid City, S. Dakota. M. L. Patrick, Rapid City, S. Dakota. Leonard Ponath, Rapid City, S. Dakota. Angelo Rich, Deadwood, S. Dakota. R. B. Rowbotham, Deadwood, S. Dakota. R. J. Rhoades, Chief Clerk, CBQ, Deadwood,

Dakota.

CBQ

A. M. Rung, Pubhc Relations Department, Railroad, Chicago,

James

Sheriff,

Rapid

111.

City, S.

CHICAGO & NORTH WESTERN DEPOT Dakota.

Mrs. Carl Stoneberger, Deadwood, Mrs.

The imposing depot S.

Dakota.

Anna Wamsley, Spearfish, S. Dakota. Wood, Deadwood, S. Dakota.

Charles Scribner's Sons, for pages 288 and 289 "Old Deadwood Days" by Estelline Bennett. F. V. Koval, Chicago & North Western Railway, for pp. 308-316 in "Pioneer Railroad," by Robert J. Casey and W. A. S. Douglas, and use of CNW in

photos.

Eldon Martin and A. M. Rung, Chicago, Bur& Quincy Railroad, for quotes from all the publications listed under their name in the biblington

liography.

M. L. Hart, for quotes of his article "A Narrow Gage in the Black Hills," Railroad Magazine, February 1939.

Railroad Magazine, February 1939, for quotes

"A Narrow Gage

in the

Black Hills" by M.

L. Hart.

True West Magazine, for release of book rights on "Veteran of the Black Hills," by Mildred Fielder, July- August 1961 issue. Will G. Robinson, Secretary of the South Dakota State Historical Society, for permission to use the

map compiled by

the Society in the publication of

"Railroads of the Black Hills" by Mildred Fielder,

1960; and for release of book rights on tions

from "Railroads of the Black

Hills."

in Lead, 1912.

Lead had the North Western name

painted across one end, but we children never lifted our eyes high enough to read the sign nor cared what it said. The Little Dinky came to Lead and stopped at The Depot. What more needed to be said?

Photo from "Booster Nugget"

Permission to quote was given by:

from

all

quota-

,^t>

ip^f^W^'^wsJ^

"CHIEF CRAZY HORSE" LOCOMOTIVE, Black Hills Central Railroad, July 1958. Number 9, "Chief Crazy Horse," from the Colorado & Southern Line, is a Cooke-Mogul, 2-6-0 narrow gauge. No. 100, from Chicago & North Western,

C&NW

tie

is a sub-gauge (two foot) Porter switcher, 0-4-OT, which saw service from 1915 to 1954 in the creosoting plant at Riverton, Wyoming. Photo by Fielder

THE BLACK HILLS CENTRAL

has four engines. "Klondike Casey" is a Baldwin Consolidation from the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, 2-8-0 three foot gauge, and is the locomotive which has furnished the motive power to date. No. 444, from Chicago & North Western, is a standard gauge Alco Ten Wheeler, 4-6-0, the last steamer to be operated in the Black Hills area. It worked between Huron and Rapid City, Belle Fourche and Chadron, Nebraska. The rolling stock of the Black Hills Central is the same bunch of cars that were used as an excursion train at the national Railroad Fair in Chicago, 1948-49, under the name of the Deadwood-Central City Flyer, noted in detail in an earlier chapter. Photo by Fielder, July 1958

5K DIKE CASEY

BIBLIOGRAPHY Narrow

Gaug,e Railroads in tKe Black Hills

Annual report of the State Inspector of Mines, 1943, p. 57. Austin, John, "Revenue and the Brains." Railroad Man's Magazine, May 1930. New York: Frank A. Munsey Company, pp. 161-165. Baldwin, George P., "The Homestake Mining Company," Black Hills Illustrated. Deadwood, S.D.: the Black Hills Mining Men's Association, 1904, p. 131. Baldwin, George P., "Pennington County Mining," Black Hills Illustrated. Deadwood: the Black Hills Mining Men's Association, 1904, p. 175. Bennett, Estelline, Old Deadwood Days. New York: J. H. Sears, 1928; reprinted by Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935, pp. 288 and 289. Blacic Hills Daily and Weekly Times, 1879-1892. Brown, Jesse and Willard, A. M., The Black Hills Trails. Rapid City, S. Dakota, privately printed, 1924, pp. 276-280.

BuUard, James, "Mail Car," Railroad Magazine, June

Frank A. Munsey Company, p. 74. Bureau of Mines Staff, Region V, Black Part

Washington, D.

1957.

Hills Mineral Atlas,

New

York:

the

South Dakota;

United States Department of the Interior, July

1954. J. and Douglas, W. A. S., Pioneer Railroad. New York: WhittleMcGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc., 1948, pp. 308-316. Chicago, Burlington and Quincy publications Annual reports, 1892, 1901. The Black Hills of South Dakota. Issued by Passenger Department, CB&Q, about 1910 or after, pp. 19-22. Corporate History of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, 1921. Sections on the "Black Hills & Fort Pierre Railroad Company," "The Deadwood Central Railroad Company," "The Grand Island and

Casey, Robert sey House,

Wyoming Central Railroad." Deadwood Central City Flyer,

folder issued at the Chicago Railroad Fair,

1948.

Mines and Mining in the Black Hills, Burlington Route, 1903 or 1904. on end paper copied for use in this book. Overton, R.

C, Milepost

100.

Chicago,

lUinois:

Burlington Lines,

Map 1949.

Records, June 30, 1917. Timetables, 1895, 1901-1912, 1914-1924, 1927-1930. Seniority Hst, Jan. Seniority

1920, engineers.

Sept.

1941, engineers.

Seniority Hst, Sept.

1941, conductors.

Seniority

1941, brakemen.

list,

Sept.

Working Time Tables, 1902-1903, 1904, 1906. Davis, C. M., S.

Dakota,

"A Short May 1912,

History of the Present Lead," Booster Nugget.

Lead,

pp. 65, 69.

Deadwood Daily Pioneer Times, 1899-1958. "Famed Conductor and Caboose Retire Together," Rock Island Lines News Digest. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, February 1949,

p. 9.

175

"Ghost Operation," 1947. Chicago, Hart,

1939.

L.,

Call,

North

in the

Western Newsliner, October p. 31.

Black Hills," Railroad Magazine.

February

Frank A. Munsey Company, pp. 67-75.

1900-1958.

McClintock, John

wood,

C&NW Railway System,

"A Narrow Gage

New York:

Lead Daily

and picture

article

Illinois:

S.,

Pioneer Days in the Black Hills, ed.

Edward

Dakota, 1939, p. 335. Meddaugh, J. E., Souvenir of Lead, Black Hills Metropolis. printed, 1892, copied picture and map.

L. Senn.

Dead-

Official Guide, April

1904.

New

York: privately

York: National Railway Publication Company,

1899.

O'Harra, Cleophas

C, The Mineral Wealth

Rapid City, South Department of Geology,

of the Black Hills.

Dakota: South Dakota School of Mines Bulletin No.

January 1902. Poor's

Manual

of Railroads,

1891.

New

"Railfan Excursions," Railroad Magazine,

York: Poor's Publishing Company. November 1939. New York: the Frank

A. Munsey Company, p. 86. Railway Equipment Register, Sept.-Nov. 1909, Feb. -April 1913, June- Aug. 1914. Rapid City Daily Journal, 1907-1936. Robinson, Doane, Encyclopedia of South Dakota. Pierre, S.D., 1925, p. 602. Tackabury, Robert V., "History of the Homestake Mine," Booster Nugget, Vol. VII, No.

Unidentified

men

Lead,

Dakota,

May

1912, pp. 47, 48.

back of a Burlington crummy, around 1900,

in the

Black

Hills, South Dakota. Photo by courtesy of Rex Tario

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