[Looking at why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]

Who does not like trains?

The recent tour of ‘Big Boy’ the world’s largest steam engine through eastern Oklahoma stirred the question of, ‘why the tour was along that route?’ We have an extensive treatment of railroads in the book, but any excuse for a day trip.

Although we see the Butterfield Stage through Indian Territory to California as an impressive feat, the wagons could not carry very much freight. The railroad, which came along later, was the obvious solution.

Where wagons travelled 10-18 miles per day on lesser trails, the stage made over 100 miles per day on a better trail, with multiple teams, and hard driving. The steam locomotive could do up to 90 miles per hour and typically about 50. With its huge freight and passenger capacity, the trains were coming, ready or not.

Complicit politicians and the railroad barons, were determined to expand the rail lines. Beginning in 1845, Congress passed multiple railroad acts. As a component of these, Congress gave land grants to the railroads. The land grants were twenty to fifty miles wide along the rail line. The railroads then sold the land and built towns. In effect, Congress made railroads rich by giving them millions of acres of land.

The Native Americans opposed the iron horse, while they controlled their land. They rightly understood the tracks and trains as an invasion of the land and their encroachment would change the hunting and their lifestyle forever.

During the War between the States, some of the Five Tribes had aligned with the Confederates because of a commonality in location, crops, and influence. After the War, the politicians used the allegiance as an excuse to force yet another bogus treaty on the Indians. The new treaty coerced the Native Americans to give their land for one east-west and one north-south rail line across Indian Territory. Any excuse will do.

Being astute, the Native Americans of Indian Territory got the better of the politicians. When the MK&T entered Indian Territory, the tribes fought the railroads in court to prevent the railroads from stealing their land. The tribes won, which prevented the railroads from seizing land grants along the lines.

Even so, enough business still existed that the railroads aggressively built lines in the new territory.

The Union Pacific Railroad began construction of a rail line from Omaha, Nebraska, across the river from Council Bluffs, Iowa, toward the west. The Central Pacific Railroad began construction from Alameda, California,

across the bay from San Francisco, toward the east. The two lines met at the famous Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869. The golden spike at the joining of the two lines completed the first rail transportation across the country.

The Kansas Pacific Railway across central Kansas was originally an attempt at a transcontinental connection. But the line became primarily a feeder to the east, with the first part opened in 1864. The line ran from Kansas City to Abilene, Kansas. The line was the destination of the Chisolm Trail cattle drives from Texas and across Indian Territory.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe built from Atchison, Kansas, to Newton and Dodge City where the Great Western Cattle Trail intersected. The line continued to Garden City, Kansas, crossing to Las Animas, Colorado, before heading southwest across Raton Pass, New Mexico, on to Santa Fe.

In 1881, the Southern Pacific from California met a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway at Deming, New Mexico, which is between Las Cruces and the Arizona border and southwest of Santa Fe. The line connected Los Angeles to Atchison, Kansas. From Atchison all points east were available. By 1883, the Southern Pacific line extended from Deming to cross Texas. That feat began to end the cattle drives through Indian Territory to Kansas, since a rail line now operated through Texas cattle country.

With numerous railroads emanating from Kansas to the east and the west, the Kansas politicians and their financiers demanded a southern route to the Gulf of Mexico. At that time Missouri had 1350 miles and Kansas had 660 miles of rail lines.

Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad won the southern route competition. The line was also known as MK&T, Katy, and Union Pacific Southern. The company built a line from Kansas City to Chetopa, Kansas. From there the line followed the old Texas Road southward between the Verdigris and Grand (Neosho) Rivers to cross the Arkansas River.

A depot plan, for the south bank of the Arkansas, found the land was unsuitable. The line moved the depot a few miles south to Muscogee Station, which became the hub for the town of Muskogee. The route proceeded onward to Denison, Texas, by the end of 1872.

Congress in an alliance with financiers created a system of unbelievable wealth for the railroad barons. If we think that is unique, look at the present system for pharmaceuticals and technology. Thomas Jefferson warned against the alliance and loss of freedoms to individuals. “The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of the lending institutions and moneyed corporations.”

Think about the balance. The railroad is still in use today on the same roadbed of 1872. The tracks are extremely busy. In one hour along the railroad on Sunday afternoon, we saw 4 freight trains. That is good for the industry, but what does the local people and economy derive? These are difficult questions, which the Indians argued in 1872 and which have continued for years.

How do we balance freedom and rights for individuals or groups of individuals, against the constant pressure to take from them for someone else?

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Excerpts from our book:

Where Indians, Outlaws & Oilmen Were Real, ISBN: 9781658834643.