Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1915 — Early Railroading In Arisons. [ARTICLE]

Early Railroading In Arisons.

The first railroad locomotive to enter the state of Arizona was for use on a line in the Clifton mining district The road, necessitated by the predilection of the Apaches for attacking the wagon trains carrying ore to Clifton, killing the drivers and eating the mules, was four miles long and was completed in two years largely by convict labor. The locomotive purchased for use on the road was the smallest made at the time, but it was the wonder and admiration of the district, and besides it was something the Apaches could not eat. Downgrade it could handle all the ore cars that the brakes would hold, but it could haul back not more than two empties. When the furnaces froze up, which occurred once a week, the locomotive could handle the traffic, but when the furnaces were at their best a resort was made to a combined mule and locomotive train, a dozen mules in front hitched to half a dozen cars with the engine behind as a pusher. Hank Arbuckle, the engineer, was the only man within 500 miles who understood anything about a locomotive, and next to the metallurgist he was the most Important feature of the Arizona Copper company’s mining establishment. When the locomotive jumped the track Hank, with the assistance ot three Mexicans, heaved it back again.—Wall Street Journal.