Did you ever wonder about the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad? I mean it comes right through the middle of the town of Purcell, Paoli, Pauls Valley, Wynnewood, and Davis. It’s solid and hard to ignore even if there’s no train on the track. It didn’t get there by itself. So, did you ever wonder who actually did the building? Was it Chinese, like the western half of the Union Pacific? Or Irish, like the eastern half of the Union Pacific? How did they do it, especially since they did not have modern gasoline driven machinery to help? And, is there anyone around who still remembers?

Well, as a matter of fact, a couple of local folks actually helped build the Santa Fe and they mentioned their experience in the Indian and Pioneer interviews conducted in the 1930’s by the W. P. A. William R. Harrison was just 19 years old when the line started building through Wynnewood. Harrison was working for rancher, Noah Lael, who won the contract to clear the right of way through the river bottom north of Wynnewood. Harrison and another employee of Lael were given the job of cutting the trees with the aid of a cross cut whip saw. Now, you’ve all seen pictures of such saws, they’re long, thin blades with handles on either end, and are driven by the back and forth motion of two men pushing and pulling on the two end bars. Harrison said the trees had to be cut to within six inches of the ground and that meant they were forced to lay on the ground to employ the saw. Once down, the boys would haul the trees off with a yoke of oxen.

According to Harrison, when the railroad company started laying the steel rails, about one hundred and fifty Irishmen came in to do the job. Harrison’s father got the contract to feed this crew, so naturally he turned the daunting task over to his wife, whom Harrison recalls would prepare massive amounts of food, for instance: boiling a ten gallon wash pot full of eggs for a single meal.

Dixie Smith, who was 26 when the railroad came through, had this to say about the event: "I helped lay the railroad from the place where it crossed Rush Creek near Pauls Valley to Purcell. The crew working north beat the crew working south to Purcell by the length of two rails. I was standing there when the big railway officials came up in their carriage driving four white horses and watched them drive the silver spike. This was on the fourth day of May, 1887."

Many of you younger folk may not recall that we had other rail roads. One of which connected Paul’s Valley and Chickasha. This road was build by the Kiowa, Chickasaw, and Fort Smith Railway Company, in 1903. The KC&FSRR was sold to the Eastern Oklahoma Company in 1904, which merged with the Santa Fe in 1907. Old timer, Elmer Godwin, remembers when the railroad was built to the new community of Lindsay... "In 1902, my father helped build the railroad from Pauls Valley to Lindsay and he hauled the first lumber from Pauls Valley to build the first building in Lindsay, a grocery store. We moved to Lindsay before the town started to build. Some of the store buildings from Erin Springs were moved to the town site of Lindsay. After the railroad was built up to that point and another railroad from Chickasha to Lindsay was built, the trains from Pauls Valley would just come to Lindsay and turn around. The train from Chickasha would also turn at Lindsay."

Yet another pioneer, Anita Powell Lindsay, step daughter to Frank Murray, recalls that on January 12, 1902, corn stalks on part of the 400 acre farm owned by her husband Lewis Lindsay, were cut down and the site laid out for the new town of Lindsay. Anita said folks were disappointed because the railroad ran up the north side of the Washita and thus bypassed the existing community of Erin Springs. Anita recalls the first train was greeted with a picnic and barbecue. And, that the following year, 1903, the Rock Island railroad laid a line east from Chickasha to Lindsay, thus completing the route.

It seems strange to me, one who grew up when railroads were still active in the transport of freight and people, that so many young folk are regard the railroad and trains as nothing more than traffic hazards. I am constantly asked why such and such hump or hillock is seen by the roadside, and I’m asked why such and such community is no longer active. The reason for both of these questions is simply, the railroad is responsible. There were lines connecting Garvin County with the eastern part of Oklahoma. Branch lines ran from Paul’s Valley to South Haven (1904) and a line from Byars to Ada crossed the northeast corner of the county (1907). Remenents of these lines are still visible, but many of the old communities formed as depots or trade centers along the railroad are long gone.

McGee, for instance, died when the Frisco railroad passed south of the town because the merchants refused to pay a $3000 fee for rerouting the line, and the residents moved to Stratford. Other communities, such as Civet, Iroquois, and Boudinot, owe their beginnings to the establishment of a depot and their demise to dwindling populations created by better farming methods and lack of industry.

Frank Poindexter recalls that: "When I came to Civet (located 7 miles west, and 1/2 mile south of Pauls Valley) in 1904, the (railroad) tracks were laid on flat ground. Later on they built up the tracks on levees." One unexpected by-product of raising the levee was that the rattlesnakes, common to the area, became accustomed to laying on the stone banks. When the rail road pulled out, the snakes remained, so be careful if you decide to explore along the old tracks.

Sources: Indian and Pioneer interviews; From Pioneeers to Progress, by Anita Lindsay, Oklahoma Historical Society, 1976; Garvin County History, 2nd Edition, 1980; Garvin County Advocate, August, 1987 and May, 1988.