Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code: 251
Corporate Name: Keno & Cold Springs Transportation Company
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership: Keno Lumber Company. Jefferson Lumber Company. Cruse Lumber Company.
Years of Operation: 1890 to about 1902
Track Type:
Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length: Four
Locations Served: Keno (Liberty)
Counties of Operation: Liberty
Line Connections: Indternational & Great Northern
Track Information:
Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment: Lima 152 0-6-0 steam locomotive 36-inch gauge, four miles of tram road
History: The Keno Lumber Company of William Kruse (Cruse) operated a lumber plant, about four miles south of Cleveland, from about 1890 to 1902. The mill also had a planing mill, four miles of tram road, and an engine and some logging cars. ICC records for the Keno & Cold Springs Transportation Company note that it was owned by W. M. Kruse and operated four miles of track. The Jefferson Lumber Company, according to Strapac, of Jefferson operated four locomotives over a 36-inch track tram road to Kildare during the later 1880s and early 1890s. One of those engines, the Lima 152 above, was purchased new by Jefferson & Kruse of Keno, Texas. Keeling noted the tram road operated one narrow gauge rod engine over a wooden tram. In 1900, HEWT contracted with Keno to supply it some 3 /1/2 miles of rails to reach more timber; in return, the mill would have to run fifteen days each month, and when the mill closed, to give the rails back. The sawmill of Keno Lumber Company at Keno closed in 1903 or 1904f. Keno sold 145 tons of steel rails to W. T. Carter & Bro of Camden, Polk County, when it dismantled. The mill was no longer listed in the directories in 1906. In 1900, 63 people worked at Keno. William A. Conn, locomotive engineer; Glenn H. Prince, shipping clerk; and William Holt, woods foreman. The mill probably had a small commissary.