Attached are a few bird's eye views of what appears to be roadbed north of Everton, MO. A co-worker has a portion of this roadbed running across his property. Down the road his father has a substantial fill which is high quality black dirt. His father sold a small percentage of the large fill to contractors and was able to pay off the remainder of the farm mortgage. The local legend is the roadbed was built but never had track constructed. The roadbed appears to take off from the Kansas City, Ft. Scott and Memphis (KCFS&M) east of Everton, but it is not clear where it ended up west of Everton. The co-worker said there was a clay pit somewhere near the road bed, so perhaps the line was built to serve that industry. Please overlook my shaky highlighting of the roadbed on the photographs. I have an invitation to check out the roadbed after tick and chigger season is over. John Sanders Springfield, MO
I do not know the real story yet. My guesses include the following. 1) The roadbed might have been a route improvement, fewer curves than the existing line, started after the original line was in service. Not completed due to a financial panic. 2) A route to Stockton, MO or an industry. The owners of the property have never located any railroad hardware on their portion of the roadbed. Perhaps Karl has some information on this mystery. John Sanders Springfield, MO
John, You pose an interesting question. A look through my limited collection of Dade County histories does not shed any light on this linear feature. As the Ash Grove Subdivision heads north from Springfield, MO near Bois d’Arc, MO it begins its descent into the Sac River Valley, followed by a steep climb to a point near MP C-179.2, where an elevation of 1143.1 feet is attained. From this point northward, the Ash Grove Subdivision begins its long general descent to Ft Scott. It is near this point from which the lineament discussed in this thread appears to diverge from the present line. The present alignment descends into Sinking Creek, Turnback Creek, and Limestone Creek before climbing toward Lockwood, MO. The mystery alignment stays “high” as it roughly parallels the present line. I examined the Everton 7-1/2 minute sheet and the South Greenfield 7-1/2 minute sheet for further clues. There are six places on the Everton sheet and there is one location on the South Greenfield sheet where the contours show cut and fill work. I have depicted these locations by green line segments. I connected the “known” locations to produce an inferred location. These are depicted by red line segments. The final alignment is very close to the satellite image. There are problems, however. While it appears that in some places earthwork was performed, in other parts of the alignment, the ground was untouched. For example, in section 5, which is just north of Everton, a fill which approaches 25-30 feet at its highest point, is bounded on each end by sections that would or should require cuts of 15-30 feet in order to maintain a reasonable grade. The ultimate problem lies in section 2 of the South Greenfield sheet. Along the northern boundary of this section, there are several contours that allow us to place the alignment with some confidence, but in the extreme Northwest corner of the section, the alignment runs into topography that is unsuitable for a railroad. Looking in sections 33 and 34, which are on the Greenfield sheet to the north, no evidence can be found of further earthwork. In short, the trail “turns cold”. So, what is it? 1. Construction Road to bring material down to Sinking Creek? 2. Tram to bring material down to Sinking Creek? 3. Line to Greenfield, MO? This would require a long, high bridge to cross Turnback Creek. 4. Line to Stockton, MO? 5. Failed alternative alignment to the present railroad line route? I am curious to hear about your field investigation. A trip to the Dade County Library may be in order too.
Karl, Thanks for your detailed look into this subject. I showed my marked up photographs and your marked up topographic maps to the co-worker Jeff. He and his father live along the north-south segment of U.S. 160 Highway. The roadbed runs along the back of their property, two parcels of land. Jeff noted that one fill showing on your topographic map has apparently been removed for use elsewhere. There is a cut on his property, about 15 feet deep, but as you noted not all of the cuts were made, or completed. He said the elevation of the roadbed in the cuts do not always match the elevation of the fill. The great mystery is the fill on his father's property. It is built from nice black dirt with very little rock. It is unlike any soil in the area. Where did it come from? Another detail Jeff mentioned has to do with the clay pit and tile ovens. That operation was east of the north-south section of U.S. 160 Highway on his grandfather's property. John Sanders
I talked to a former co-worker who grew up on the east side of U.S. 160 Highway. His parents had property just north of the roadbed crossing of U.S. 160 and his grandparents had the land to the south and east. His grandparents did talk about the railroad dumps that acted as the bank of a couple of ponds, but did not go into any details. One interesting observation he made was the "terraced" land south and east of the U.S. 160 crossing. The terraces appear in the aerial photograph and may be the origin for the fill dirt for the nearest fills. Depending on when the work was done the terraces may have been cut using animal powered scrapers. The co-worker living west of U.S. 160 cut hay on the terraces and disliked having to follow the contours. He said there are additional terraces north closer to his father's big fill. The partial circle on the large photograph is actually a nicely curved creek bed. My wishful thinking got the best of me. I also have the U.S. 160 crossing a little to far to the north in the large photograph. Karl's map has the correct location. John Sanders
I think there was a discussion about this line a few years ago; however, I cannot remember if it was here or on Yahoo. But anyway if you look at some of the older Google Earth maps you can see what appears to be a line heading Southeast away from Greenfield, MO. I recall some thought it was an attempt to run directly thru Greenfield that was never completed. Maybe this was part of the Everton line? Roger
Giving this thread a bump to see if any new information has been developed or additional field research was conducted. I am hopeful that folks can contribute to help resolve the questions raised in the prior research. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
