Beaver, MO, MP 116.8 - Beaver Branch Railroad - Beaver To Beaver Mines - 4 Mile Spur

Discussion in 'Rolla-Lebanon Subdivision' started by Brad K, Nov 13, 2016.

  1. Brad K

    Brad K Member

    Hello, yes, I am new here, so this might be a dumb question from me.


    It seems like there used to be a spur 5 miles west of Rolla called Beaver Branch, and there is no other information than that. I looked everywhere. There seems to be an old station there, also, but once again, I couldn't find anything about this branch line. Is there anything from you guys?
     
  2. Oldguy

    Oldguy Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Not much from me, but I did find:

    Place name: Beaver Branch Railroad
    Description: An abandoned branch of the Frisco Railroad running four miles from Beaver to Beaver Creek Mine. Named for Beaver (q.v.) which is at the junction of Beaver Branch Railroad and Frisco Railroad. (CAMPBELL'S GAZ., 435; Frank Groves)
    Source: Weber, Frank. "Place Names Of Six South Central Counties of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1938.

    Beaver Creek Mine is located about on mile up Iron Ore Creek, high on the ridge on the east side of the creek. You can see it on the 1985 Rolla topo. (http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gtusa/usa/mo/county/phelps.htm)

    upload_2016-11-14_16-32-40.png
    https://books.google.com/books?id=p...beaver valley branch phelps county mo&f=false

    This should give you a start
     
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  3. Joe Lovett

    Joe Lovett Member

    Brad, welcome to the Frisco website! I don't know the answer to your question but I noticed your question was your first post.

    Joe
     
  4. RogerRT

    RogerRT Staff Member Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Now that's interesting, never heard of it. Looking deeper into my timetables I did find the station of Beaver listed in the 1881 Official Guide but not in the 1899 TT, must have missed it when I did the Frisco Google Map. It looks to be just east of the station of Piney where the spur could have branched off. I looked at the sources Joe listed & found the mine about 3-1/2-miles SE of Piney, it is shown on several topo maps on the Historical Aerials website. Beaver Branch RR is not listed as a predecessor company of Frisco so either it was a private RR (doubtful) or that was just the name Frisco gave it for reference (probable). Joe's research gives us a clue as to the years the spur was in operation, perhaps Piney & Beaver are the same station?

    Roger

    1881.jpg
     
  5. Larry F.

    Larry F. Member

    Out of curiosity: what type of mine was it and what was the volume of the the mine to justify a spur? If memory serves, that is some hilly country so it would have taken some major work to reach the mine. Larry
     
  6. Karl

    Karl 2008 Engineer of the Year Frisco.org Supporter


    Mines in this area produced iron ore from filled-sink deposits in the Roubidoux Formation. The iron ore was hematite.
     
  7. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Karl, your notation regarding Filled-Sink deposits triggered one of my knowledge-expanding roams through the vast expanse of the internet. Lots of cool stuff out there regarding their existence in central Missouri. https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1992/0014/report.pdf is one example.
     
  8. Karl

    Karl 2008 Engineer of the Year Frisco.org Supporter


    Here' a pic of one that is exposed in a cut along I-44 at Rolla. The bedded Pennsylvanian shales are easy to spot in the Ordovician sinkhole, shale_filled_jeff_city_sink_rolla_annotated_mo.jpg
     
  9. palallin

    palallin Member

    All of that sink hole is buried behind retaining cribbing and poured concrete nowadays. I guess somebody has figured out what a stupid idea it was to build there in the manner they have.
     
  10. Brad K

    Brad K Member

    Hello, all! Brad again. I think I've finally made a breakthrough in finding the branch. It may not be correct, but it's a step in the right direction.

    I stumbled upon Explorer Chris' thread about the Salem Branch and it had a few maps with it. I looked on a few of them and they all showed the location for the station/junction named Beaver. So now I've gotten a possible area for where it was, but that's not all.

    I think, and I repeat, think that I've found a possible place where the roadbed could have been. It snakes, and the treeline doesn't seem natural for what it is.
    Screen Shot 2018-01-10 at 1.41.45 PM.png
    Red marker is where Beaver Creek Mine was formerly located

    possible roadbed.png
    Black line is what I think is the possible roadbed.

    Can anybody with sharp eyes for old roadbeds confirm or deny my claim? I'm still a rookie at finding things like this :giggle:
     
  11. frisco1522

    frisco1522 Staff Member Staff Member

    On the timetable, Beaver is listed at mile 119, which is Newburg.
     
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  12. RogerRT

    RogerRT Staff Member Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I thought I posted a follow up on this but I guess I forgot. The was no company called the Beaver Branch RR, that is just what they called the spur for reference. Beaver was renamed Piney at an unknown time, probably after they pulled the branch up. Attached is a map of the ROW drawn according to the maps on Historical Ariel, it's fairly easy to see unlike the one out of Fanning, I never could find that one though folks swear there was one. There is a sinkhole that marks the end of the line, don't know what they were digging up, maybe charcoal, I'll leave it up to the rock hounds on this board to figure that out...Roger
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2023
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  13. RogerRT

    RogerRT Staff Member Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Yeah it's off on the plus side by about 2.5-miles, probably because they were still running on the MOP out of Pacific at the time....Roger
     
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  14. Brad K

    Brad K Member

    How exactly do you open that file? Is it on Google Maps or Google Earth?
     
  15. Oldguy

    Oldguy Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I you click on the link, it'll bring up Google Earth. You might have to had previously loaded the app. I got an error message, clicked OK, and it took me to the linked location.

    And Roger, perhaps you meant coal and not charcoal.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2023
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  16. RogerRT

    RogerRT Staff Member Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Google Earth, should go to the bottom under "Temporary Files" you can then drag it to where you want to save it...Bob, yeah probably coal, I was thinking Salem Branch for some reason, that's where the charcoal came from...Roger
     
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