EP&SW
Railroad

Railroad Rivalries

GeoCache GC1GQE8


A typical "440" or "Standard"
coal-fired locomotive, which
would have been used on this spur
 


Typical fuel-grade coal
(which can still be found along the
railroad grades around town)
 


EP&SW 1910 rail map (segment)
 


EP&SW Switching Yard
(after tracks had been pulled up)
 


Path of double switchback
EP&SW northern spur
 


Overhead photo map
of north side spur switchbacks
 


EP&SW South Courtland spur
 


EP&SW 1914 depot in Douglas
(as it is today)
 
  In our 21st century, non-fanatics tend to view the railroad as a quaint, somewhat romantic, and rather primitive mode of transportation. But in the hundred years from 1850 to 1950, railroads dominated not only the world of transportation but also the worlds of business, politics, and imagination. Railroads brought food, supplies, clothes, alcohol, lumber, livestock, machinery, coal, oil, mail, payroll gold, news, labor, and relatives. They were the first real advance in transportation since the domestication of the horse in pre-history. The railroads brought all these things, and the railroads were ruled by larger-than-life characters (the "railroad barons") whose names became staples of high finance and power politics such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, J.P. Morgan, and E.H. Harriman. The story of these men, and these economic and political forces, can be divined from the remnants of rock and rail which surround this geocache site in Courtland.

  Railroads in the United States were not created in one fell swoop, running from one end of the country to another. They were built piecemeal...local systems which served local needs...and there were thousands of such railroad companies. Occasionally one would significantly fail, or would be bought out or absorbed by another. As a result, by the 1870's there were only a few major railroad companies, and lots of subsidiary lines which were owned in whole or in part, by the big players. One of the biggest was the Union Pacific, which was run by E.H. Harriman.

  In 1901, Harriman used some very modern leverage tactics to gain control of the Southern Pacific railroad, whose lines ran through Cochise county exactly along the route that Interstate 10 now occupies. Hauling freight and passengers from one end of the country to the other was only one of the "businesses" that engaged the railroads. Another was moving heavy material (like ores and metals) from one part of a mining operation to another. Remember, there were no paved roads and no large trucks to carry such materials. Railroads were the only game in town. And so various small railroad companies started up to take the ore from mine to smelter, from smelter to refinery, and from refinery to final destination.

  In 1909, when copper was found in Courtland, two railroad companies started a race, laying tracks towards the newly formed town. The Southern Pacific started heading south from its main line in Cochise down towards Pearce and Courtland, ultimately aiming at the new smelter town of Douglas. The El Paso & South Western (EP&SW) started in Douglas, and began building north through the towns of Small, McNeal, and Elfrida (the latter two towns can still be found along highway 191). Being the smaller company, the EP&SW was David to the Southern Pacific's Goliath. By February of that year, both railroads had built as far as the outskirts of Courtland, and were working on spurs to come into town and near the mines.

  In the end, it was kind of a tie. The Southern Pacific, from a spot about three miles east of Courtland, created a spur going west into southern Courtland. There they constructed the "Holmes" station. From there, the tracks followed a curve which hugged the hills south and west around into Gleeson.

  The EP&SW went to the north side and central Courtland instead. The EP&SW crossed the Southern Pacific tracks just north of SP's Courtland cutoff and headed west-northwest into Courtland. About a mile east of town, the EP&SW created two sub-spurs. One went southwest, curled around the cemetery, and came into Courtland on the south side, going as far as the Humbolt mine. The other spur went northwest, curled north of the Mary mine, and along the arroyo into central Courtland, weaving itself right next to the Silverton, Germania, April Fool, and Maid of Sunshine mines.

  It is the remnants of this northern spur that you can see from this geocache. In fact, you're standing on one segment of the now-abandoned track grading.

 The town of Courtland was divided into three distinct sections:

    1) the south side, originally known as the Great Western Townsite;
    2) central (downtown) Courtland; and
    3) the north side, originally known as the McFate townsite

  Central Courtland is to your right on the main road. North side Courtland is to your left, also along the main road. The EP&SW railroad came into town in two places. One of them was between central and north-side Courtland, directly in front of you (if you're facing Main Street). The path you NOW see ahead of you and slightly to your right, running in toward you above the creek was a railroad bed. It came north from Douglas, crossed the Southern Pacific track about 5 miles east of here, went through a switching yard behind the hill in front of you, and right past the major north side mines. That train continued, crossed main street coming towards you (1 on the map), and went up the little road to your right. Behind you, it stopped at a siding (2 on the map), switched the track connector, and then came up the path you're standing on right now, and across Main Street a second time at the grade at the top of the hill. There (3 on the map)  it uncoupled cars for the nearby mines, switched another track connector, and headed west again, crossing Main Street a third time, up what is now the private road to your left, and went up to the Leadville mines on the other side of the hill behind you. When the cars were loaded, the train would come back west, cross Main Street three times again, and head back out to the main spur, where it would go back to Douglas.

  If you are wondering why the train tracks wander around and never seem to go straight to their destinations, remember that the locomotives were coal-fired steam power, with very heavy loads. To pull such a load up a steep hill (or anything over about 3% grade) would require a very heavy locomotive so that the wheels didn't just spin on the tracks. A heavy locomotive in turn required more fuel, heavier rails and more solid ground. It was cheaper and easier to run 5 miles of winding track up a 1% hill than it was to go a single mile up a 4% hill. An example of this can be seen in the map on the left, which shows the winding path of the south side Courtland spur of the EP&SW. You can see that it winds one way around a hill and then winds the other way around the cemetery and into town.

  The EP&SW carried mostly freight, while the Southern Pacific carried both freight and passengers. Interestingly, the SP never completed the track all the way down to Douglas. The go-getter director, E.H. Harriman, died in the Autumn of 1909, and much of the riskier undertakings of the SP died with him. Although tracks were laid from Courtland to within a half mile of Douglas, the Southern Pacific never actually opened them up beyond Courtland. Still, if you wanted to go cross-country as a passenger, the Southern Pacific was probably your choice. You would get a ticket in Courtland as far as Cochise, then buy a ticket on the main line going either west to Tucson or California, or east via Deming and Lordsburg to El Paso, Kansas City, Chicago, or other points east.

  The EP&SW was eventually purchased by the Southern Pacific in November of 1924, and was merged into that system. The trains to Courtland stopped running in the spring of 1933, and the tracks were picked up by New Years Day of 1934. All that is left of the railroad rivalries in Courtland are the railroad grades, like the one you are now standing on.