Earlier this week Jeff Cooney, Frisco 4301, posted a 1896, KCC&S Ry ETT on the Ship it on the Frisco FB group. One sentence from the “Special Instructions” noted, “Nos 101 and 102 (the daily, KC-Springfield through passenger train) will stop at Clear Creek to take-on or leave passengers”. The ETT is silent about Clear Creek, and no other information is provided. A quick look through my USGS 7-1/2 minute topo sheets located a single crossing of a Clear Creek in Greene County approximately 1.1 mile south of the Phenix depot. The Clear Creek site may be 1.45 miles south of the Phenix depot where there was a grist mill. Otherwise, the 1904 plat doesn’t reveal anything else that would warrant a “flag stop” for 101 and 102. I fired-up my LIDAR viewer to see if there are any obvious remnants of a small village in the area; no signs of such a place exist. However, the LIDAR shows that a spur once existed from the Leaky Roof mainline to the quarry west of the KCC&S. The spur appears in later ETT’s as Ashco. The quarry doesn’t appear in the 1904 plat, and the earliest ETT in my possession to show the spur is 1923. Ashco remains through my last ETT, 1933. The quarry doesn’t appear in the 1904 plat, and the earliest the ETT in my possession to show the spur is 1923. Ashco remains through my last ETT, 1933. After the Frisco - Memphis Road merger, the rationalization process along the High Line - Leaky Roof corridor began; depots were closed and trackage was abandoned. This is reflected in the ETT's as station numbers and mileages changed. Clear Creek is mentioned only in the 1896 ETT, and Ashco appears sometime between 1910 and 1923. During 1926, the Frisco published a plan to abandon the Leaky Roof between Walnut Grove and Phenix. The Frisco intended to build a connection between the High Line and the Leaky Roof at Walnut Grove. The trackage between Phenix and Ash Grove would remain. The quarries at Phenix and Ashco generated enough business to keep a switch crew at Ash Grove. The plan wasn't executed. The Phenix -Ash Grove segment lasted until its abandonment during 1942. My 1940 Northern Division ETT no longer lists Ashco. Based on the name, we can assume that Ash Grove Lime or another Ash Grove company operated the quarry. Examination of several geologic maps indicate that Ascho was extracting from the same section of the Burlington Formation as was the Phenix Company. The LIDAR provides some very good details with regard to the Ashco operations. Operations began from the north, and like a coal strip pit, shovels removed the over burden, and placed it to their rear. The initial limestone extraction worked from east to west, and the limestone was cut back, the spur was extended further west as rail cars removed the material. When the operations reach the west side of the property, the process was repeated to the east and so on. I believe that the limestone was headed for the Ash Grove Lime kilns in Ash Grove; perhaps, Phenix Marble bought some of the rock for its kilns, too. Operational information is very scarce. Operations may have ended suddenly. In the last cut on the south, the LIDAR shows a bench of limestone, which is missing the topsoil and residuum, while to the west, the cut is finished.
