Here is a link to a web site covering the North Arkansas Line. They partnered with the FRISCO to send rail service to Eureka Springs AR from Seligman MO eventually growing to 365 miles, sharing FRISCO track and facilities. As noted in Rich Crab's e-mail, the FRISCO had a financial interest in the Crescent Hotel as well. The site is relatively new and still growing. www.northarkansasline.com
The story of the North Arkansas Line is an interesting one. The railroad suffered from poor management, it ran through a region whose topography was inhospitable to railroading and revenue production, it suffered through a long, violent labor strike, and it suffered from just plain old bad luck. At the time of construction, the Eureka Springs Rwy. reached an agreement with the Frisco. The Frisco would pay the Eureka Springs 10% of its gross receipts from interchange passenger fares from travel to or through junctional, or terminal points on the Frisco. Likewise the Frisco would pay up to $30, 000 per year to the 6% first mortgage bonds for freight interchange. In return the Frisco received 1,000 shares of common stock, ($100,000 par), a like amount of second mortgage bonds, and hope for increased business. The Eureka promoters had been hopeful that the Frisco would purchase and extend the railroad to Little Rock. By the end of the 19<SUP>th</SUP> century, traffic levels on the Eureka had fallen off, and the road needed to extend into other revenue producing areas. The promoters could no longer wait for the Frisco. They formed the St Louis and North Arkansas Railroad, which was authorized to purchase all assets of the Eureka Springs Railway up to and including Jan 31, 1900, and to pay $500,00 in first mortgage bonds, and $600,00 in common stock of the StL & N A RR. As a result the Frisco received 200 shares or $20,000 worth of stock in the new railroad in exchange for its now worthless Eureka Springs Railway stock. The attached documents discuss the deal.
Sadly, the North Arkansas Line link seems to have been abandoned ... like so many of the the line's rail routes!
