Arizona Mineral Belt Railroad - the rest of the story

Back in July I posted a report on the AMB Rim Tunnel. That was the start of the AMB story but it didn't end there.

AMB Rim Tunnel

The rest of the story:
After exhausting the $54k of A&P money on the tunnel the project appeared to be dead. After about a three year hiatus, Colonel Eddy was again able to convince the A&P to invest in the AMB. The agreement was that the A&P would purchase $25k of stock after each 5 miles of track was completed. The problem was coming up with the money required to start the first 5 miles. He convinced a Chicago business promoter to purchase $100,000 worth of stock to start the work. In January of 1887 a switch was installed along the A&P in Flagstaff to kick off the project. By March of 1887 the first 10 miles of rail had been laid. By May the railhead was 15 miles south of Flagstaff and a sawmill was established by Dennis Riordan at MP12 in the area known as Clark's Valley. By July of 1887 the rail extended 24 miles to the south. In October the total length had been extended to MP 35 and the $100k had been used up. The Colonel then tried to get his $25k per 5 miles from the A&P and they refused. It seems that the agreement had been violated when the Colonel failed to notify the A&P that the Chicago business man was receiving considerable shares of stock. That was the death blow of the AMB scheme.

Dennis Riordan eventually picked up the 35 miles of the AMB grade at auction for $40,400. He along with Francis Hinkley, the Chicago business man, incorporated the railroad as the Central Arizona for use by their lumber operation.

Later parts of the grade would be used by the Flagstaff Lumber Company except where submerged under Lake Mary. The FLC built a high bridge over the canyon north of the lake once the dam was built to form the lake.

A book titled "Central Arizona Railroad" by Thomas Schuppert provides some of the history of the logging lines in and around Flagstaff.

The following map provides picture links for about 6 miles of the grade from upper Lake Mary to a point north of Mormon Lake (I started the hike at the southern end). Zoom in on the yellow squares and hover over them to bring up the photos. Of note are the extensive rock fills and the disappearance of the grade into the lake. Much of this stretch of the grade used large rock ballast and many of the ties are still strewn along the grade. Also note a branching grade about midway along the route that I haven't completely explored yet.

Flagstaff Logging Lines Map

Hike stats
Length: 12.9 miles
Moving time: 5 hours 5 minutes
Moving average: 2.5 MPH
Stopped: 1 hour 26 minutes

Edit 12/1/2018
Note that the hike detailed on this map isn't necessarily on the AMB grade. There were various grades in this area with all of the logging operations based out of Flagstaff. In some cases later logging lines have been built on top of portions of the AMB grade or taken alternate routes out of the Clark Valley as the lakes were developed. With that said, this little hike still provides a nice detour into the forest with lots of evidence of former rail activity.

Dave



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2018 10:35AM by ROW Explorer.