Denver, Enid and Gulf Railroad - Geography

Geography

Starting at the south end of the line in Guthrie, Oklahoma, the DE&G departed from the AT&SF mainline just north of downtown and curved northwestward, paralleling, then crossing the sand-choked Cimarron River on a long wooden pile bridge. The line continued northwestward through several small farming communities, servicing grain elevators. A high wooden trestle carried the railroad across Skeleton Creek. At Enid, Oklahoma, the line crossed the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (now Union Pacific Railroad) as well as two lines of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. In Enid the former AT&SF brick freight depot houses the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma, across the street from the classic Tudor AT&SF passenger station. Between Jet and Cherokee, Oklahoma, the line crossed the western portion of the salt flats at Great Salt Plains Lake for several miles atop an earth berm fill. North of Cherokee it bridged the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River, including a long wooden trestle over the flood plain. At Kiowa, Kansas, the line terminated at a junction with the current BNSF Railway transcontinental line after passing through a cut about 10-foot (3.0 m) deep.