Black Hills and Fort Pierre Railroad


The Black Hills and Fort Pierre Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad in the Black Hills of the U.S. state of South Dakota. It was created by the Homestake Mining Company and initially ran from Lead to Calcite and Piedmont by way of Elk Creek. An alternate route was established to Piedmont and Calcite by way of Nemo and Stagebarn Canyon after numerous washouts made the Elk Creek route unviable. There was also a branch from the Nemo line connecting Este with a logging camp at Merritt. The railroad had of dual gauge track and another of track; the total amount of track was.

History

The line was originally intended to haul timber to the Homestake Mining Company in Lead. On June 15, 1881, the railroad company was incorporated under the name Black Hills Railroad Company. The name was changed to the Black Hills and Fort Pierre Railroad on July 10, 1882. On November 29, 1881, a mule team hauled the first locomotive, a Porter 2-6-0, from Fort Pierre to Lead. The first track was laid from Lead to Woodville in 1881, and in 1886, the track was extended to Bucks. In 1890, the line was extended to Piedmont. A line long that ran from Bucks to Este was built in 1898.
On July 28, 1901, the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, which was a subsidiary of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, bought the railroad. The CB&Q handled construction after July 1901. The three-rail line was then built from Lead to the Homestake Mine. In 1906, a small line was created from Este to Merritt, and was about long. A flood wiped out about of track from Bucks to Calcite and had to be replaced by a new line from Este to Stage Barn Canyon, where it would connect to a surviving line. In the 1920s, increasing automobile traffic led to the decline of the railroad. The Calcite Mine, the only source of traffic remaining on the railroad at the time, was planned to shut down. On October 25, 1929, plans to shut down the railroad were completed; permission to do so from the state and federal governments was received on December 14. The railroad operated until March 20, 1930, and the track was dismantled that spring. The company was officially disestablished in 1932.

Footnotes