I love the old trains, and I love Arlo Guthrie's "City of New Orleans" , so I came up with a wonderful train ride through Crittenden County. This was one of my article I used in The Crittenden Press.
A Magic Carpet Ride
Made Of Steel
Taken from a line of a
favorite song on mine, let's take a ride on a magic carpet made of
steel. This will be a fun and historical train ride through our
beautiful Crittenden County and along the way we'll go through towns
and fields and stop at the depots along the way. The time period of
our trip will be during the early and late 1900s. Our Illinois
Central train ride will begin as it crosses the old draw bridge
between Webster and Crittenden County.
***
This historical bridge
has it's own unique history. The Tradewater River railroad bridge at
Blackford was a vital link for the Ohio Valley Railroad that ran from
Henderson, to Princeton, Kentucky. The first bridge to be constructed
was a Draw Bridge. It was shortly after 1886 when the Draw Bridge was
constructed. In 1914 a new 528 ft. long bridge was build by the
Illinois Central Railroad with help from the U.S. Government that
included a pedestrian walk bridge. The Illinois Central Railroad
design was an upgrade in structure. The IC wanted to run a larger and
heavier class of locomotives to pull coal trains from Union and
Webster counties to the Illinois Central Kentucky division's main
line at Princeton, Kentucky and to be able to handle the car loads of
fluorspar from Crittenden County to travel up north.
***
As we exit to the
Crittenden County side of the bridge, we'll roll by the Blackford
Church Camp ground where they have a wonderful summer time camp
meeting. These meetings were started as early as 1917. People from
several states throughout the country came to the week-long meetings
of worshiping the Lord. The camp grounds, and dinning hall would be
full of folks.
The singing of my wheels
will hum them to sleep each night and my whistle call will awakening
them each morning as I announcement my return arrival at the bridge.
***
We'll roll a short
distance through the beautiful country to the community of Nunn
Switch. We'll make a stop here to drop off the load of empty milk
containers I brought back from Evansville, a stop here later in the
day from a sister train from the south, will pick up milk filled
containers for their trip back to the Evansville creamery. I'll also
pick up a few passengers that are going to Marion to spend the day in
town. There are several passenger trains that run back and forth
during the day.
This little hamlet is
known through the county as having three names, Nunn Switch, Hoods,
and Gladstone, the Hood Creek school sits upon the hill not far from
the depot, named for the tumbling creek that rolls through the center
of the village, The children watch for me as I chug by each day, the
depot was named for the Samuel Nunn family, as it sits on Nunn family
land, and Gladstone for the post office located in the general store.
Nunn's switch has a blacksmith, grocery store, post office and stock
pins located near the depot. It's a central location for the area.
***
We pick up our speed and
the rhythm of my wheels rumble through fields and along bluffs as we
go through the edge of the community of Mattoon. Its a busy location
as roads from different parts of the county run through the town.
Mattoon adopted it's present name in 1894. The business center,
which had led the county in the sale of farming implements during the
early 1890's, lost its tobacco stemmery and flour mill to fire in the
early 1900s. The town dwindled to only one general store. The
construction of U. S. Highway 60 through Mattoon was vital for the
village and for a time set it back on the growing path.
***
A short distance farther
down the rails is the little hamlet of Repton. It's a beautiful
little town situated on the I. C. railroad . It consists of two
general merchandise stores, one church, school house, blacksmith shop
and a number of dwelling houses and a post office is located here.
There is a small ticket and freight depot located here with a stock
yard near by for farmers to load their stock on train cars and send
them to the stockyard at Evansville. A few more passengers board my
train and get seated in the passenger cars as we head on towards
Marion.
***
We pass through more
scenic country side and over the railroad bridge known as Harrison
Trestle that is built over Brushy creek. Winslow park is located
here. Not so many years ago, it was a rather bare, uninviting tract
of land with a few trees, a small house in the center of it, but I
see today, as I cross over the bridge, there are benches, tables, and
electric lights to make it possible for a picnic to be given there
with as much ease and convenience as a meal is served in the dining
room of one’s home.
Mr. Virgil L. Stone, who
is responsible for the many changes and improvements which have taken
place at Winlow, has spared neither time nor money to make the park
an attractive and inviting place for picnickers and tourists. He has
also constructed some cottages for people to stay awhile if they
would like.
***
From Winlow Park the
rhythm of my wheels hum along the rails until we get to the town of
Marion. The Depot here is a center of activity. I let off my
passengers from Nunn Switch and Repton, plus several business men
that loaded on in Evansville. For the visitors from Evansville and
beyond, there will be a horse and buggy waiting to take them to the
Crittenden Hotel for their stay in Marion and Crittenden County.
These are business men looking to invest in the county's rich
deposits of fluorspar and other minerals such as lead and zinc. And
there will be some salesmen included with the passengers also wanting
to peddle their goods.
I'll unhitch a couple of
my empty loading cars at the depot and they will be filled with this
wonderful mineral called fluorspar. On a return trip the cars will
be reattached and taken to points up north for the steel mills in
some northern cities.
***
On the move again we
travel past country houses, farms and fields heading toward our next
stop of Crayne. I'll roll over the railroad trestle that crosses the
A. H. Clement road. This trestle is now gone, taken down during the
last of the golden days of the train and railroads through the
county. (1999).
Gone with it are the
days when it was a place to explore and climb on the wooden
structure, a wonderful place for young boys to spend a day.
We roll into Crayne, or
in my earlier days, Crayneville. The Crayne depot sits by a large
lot, known as the loading yard. Piles of fluorspar and timber will
be kept here until it can be loaded in my cars. Crayne folks that
rode into Marion on an earlier train, will ride back with me and
depart at the little Crayne depot.
The Crayne school is
located a short distance from the Depot and as I go by the children
out playing will be watching and waving at me as I chug by, blowing
black smoke from my smoke stack. I'm a special sight and sound and
my friendly conductor will be riding on my red caboose at the end to
wave back at the children as we pass by. A special time in those
days gone by.
***
From Crayne we travel
through more beautiful rural country sides and farm lands until we
reach the next community known as Mexico and a just a short distance
is the community of Frances.
Children that live close
to the railroad tracks watch and listen for me, my conductor looks
for the children and will perhaps have some candy or gum to throw to
them. Mexico also has it's own depot, and located near by is a
train yard filled with piles of fluorspar waiting to be loaded.
This is the heart of the great mineral-fluorspar country.
The large mining company
known as Lafeyatte is located at Frances My tracks run close by the
great mill and here my cars are filled with fluorspar. It's faster
and easier to use train transportation than it was in the horse and
wagon days, or even later with dump trucks.
I continue my journey
over the hills and through woods to exit Crittenden County into the
town of Fredonia in Caldwell County.
***
Enjoy my ride while you
can, for in a few short years I will be disappearing with many
memories for all that grew up with me, the sights and sounds of my
rumbling wheels on the steel tracks, my lonesome echoing whistle, my
bellowing black smoke and cinders as I neared the towns and cross
roads. I have run over and flattened many hundred of pennies and
nails to the delight of many children through my years. Perhaps you
are lucky enough to have a souvenir of these days gone by when the
locomotive was king of transportation in our county.