Muskogee Roads
The Muskogee Roads was the colloquial name for a system of railroads under common management operationally headquartered in Muskogee, Oklahoma and controlled by the Muskogee Company of Philadelphia.[1] The Muskogee Roads were the only Class I railroads to be headquartered in Oklahoma and had a major impact on the development and livelihood of the region. The Muskogee Roads were the Midland Valley Railroad, the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway, and the Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka Railway. The Muskogee Company also controlled the Osage Railway. The prehistory of the Muskogee Company might be said to begin with the building of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad in the 1890s by a group of Philadelphia businessmen headed by Charles Edward Ingersoll; that line ran from McAlester, Oklahoma to Hartford, Arkansas.[2] The Ingersoll group sold the line in 1902, but then decided to build a new line from Wichita, Kansas to Ft. Smith, Arkansas.[2] The resulting Midland Valley Railroad Company was chartered in 1903, and the whole line was finished by 1906.[3] The Muskogee Company was formed in 1923 to manage the affairs of the railroad.[2] An independently-owned but associated road, the Osage Railway, was built during the early 1920s. It was to accommodate traffic from the oil fields located in the Osage Nation.[2] The Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad was a nearby line that had twice gone into receivership.[2] That railway ran from Denison, Texas to Baxter Springs, Kansas.[4] Ownership passed into the hands of the Muskogee Company in 1926, and the line was soon generating a profit.[2][4] In 1929, the Muskogee Company acquired the Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka Railroad Company and its subsidiary, the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Interurban Company. At this point the Ingersoll interests owned and operated four railways with 756 miles of track.[2] The Osage Railroad was abandoned in 1953.[2] In 1963, the Texas & Pacific, which was a subsidiary of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, acquired the other three lines.[2] The Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka was sold to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe that same year, while the others were consolidated into the Texas & Pacific.[2] References
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