History
Construction on the OC&E Railroad (also known as the Klamath Municipal Railway) began in the summer of 1917 as part of a grand scheme to connect Central and Eastern Oregon with rail lines and take advantage of timber opportunities. Initial development efforts involved bonds sold by the city of Klamath Falls. Logging camps with spur railroads sprang up almost overnight, and by 1919, four lumber mills were located on the main line. After several delays, the OC&E was declared open in the fall of 1923, and in 1927 was extended to Bly.
Southern Pacific and Burlington Northern operated the line jointly from 1925 until 1974, when it was purchased by Weyerhaeuser, who solely operated the entire railroad in support of its timber operations. At peak production in the late 1970s, the OC&E was reported to be transporting 35,000 loads of wood products a year.
In the early 1980s, the OC&E had a decline in traffic, and when it was no longer cost effective to move logs by rail, Weyerhaeuser railbanked the line, and deeded it to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department in 1992. The last logging train entered Klamath Falls on April 29, 1990.
Read more about this topic: OC&E Woods Line State Trail
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)