Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code: 187
Corporate Name: Kiley-Craven Lumber Company
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership: Kiley-Craven Lumber Company. Arkansas Lumber Company. W. H. Spinks.
Years of Operation: 1900 to 1920s
Track Type:
Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length: More than five
Locations Served: Kilraven Cherokee
Counties of Operation: Cherokee and Angelina
Line Connections:
Track Information:
Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment: Shay dinkie engine, ten log cars, animals, wooden tram rails
History: County chattel mortgages reveal that Arkansas Lumber Compay operated a logging tram road with steel rails adjacent to the St Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) just after 1900. The rails came from the St Louis Southwestern Railroad. The company bought the Shay engine and ten log cars from J. B. Payson. In 1902, the company mortgaged with Dilley for 371 rails totaling 72 tons. During the first days, the tram road of the Arkansas Lumber Company at Morton was orginally a mule and wooden car operation along a 4-inch by 4-inch wooden tracks. A locomotive was purchased; fuel consisted of sawdust, slabs, and pine knots. Will Tyra drove the train for $2.00 a day during 1901. Tom Harris would work for years as a locomotive engineer. The tram engine could pull seven cars. The tram was first about five miles in length, built on wooden rails toward Devil's Bayou and the Loan Chandler homestead. Oxen and mules were used with chains to load the logging cars. The wooden tram road eventually was built to both the Neches and Angelina rivers. In a move unusual for its time and era, the Kiley-Craven Lumber Company, successor to Arkansas Lumber, sometime after 1910 eliminated the locomotives and logging cars. Oxens and mules were used to skid logs or haul wagons to the mill.