Blair speaks to Lions Club about early area railroads

Photo by Susan Holland Al Blair, a member of the Gravette Historical Museum commission, referred to a Railroads of Benton County timeline when he spoke to the Gravette Lions Club at its Oct. 6 meeting. Blair told the Lions about the history of the railroads in and around Gravette and about his work in restoring the model train layout and Old Town Park diorama at the museum.
Photo by Susan Holland Al Blair, a member of the Gravette Historical Museum commission, referred to a Railroads of Benton County timeline when he spoke to the Gravette Lions Club at its Oct. 6 meeting. Blair told the Lions about the history of the railroads in and around Gravette and about his work in restoring the model train layout and Old Town Park diorama at the museum.

GRAVETTE -- Al Blair, a member of the Gravette Historical Museum commission, was guest speaker at the Oct. 6 meeting of the Gravette Lions Club and told Lions Club members some history of the early-day railroads in and around Gravette.

Blair has been a railroad buff ever since he was a young boy in Cherry Valley and the Missouri Pacific railroad line ran right by his home. He explained that, when he was a youngster, there were both steam engines and diesel trains on the tracks. He was more interested in the diesels at the time, he said, but now he wishes he had paid more attention to the steam trains.

Blair explained that the town of Gravette owed its very beginnings to the railroad. The town's founder, E.T. Gravett, found out where the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf railroad was coming through and laid out a town site on 80 acres near Nebo, where the train would run. Later, new investors in the railroad renamed the line the Kansas City Southern.

Blair also told about the Arkansas and Oklahoma Railroad, which took over the old Bentonville Railway Company and built tracks west to Gravette, to connect with the K.C.P. and G. The A and O line was extended to Southwest City, Mo., in 1899, and on to Grove, Indian Territory, in 1900. Later that year the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad, known as the Frisco, purchased the line and operated it until April, 1940. It is this railroad that Blair used as a model for the layout at his home. He calls his line the Gravette, Grand Lake and Western Railroad.

Blair explained the work he is doing for the museum commission in helping restore the layout of Gravette in 1926 and the model railroad surrounding it. The Old Town Park portion of the layout is the only portion that is intact, but Al and other museum commissioners have been working to restore the railroad and later will rebuild the town. He has built an authentic replica of the train depot and later will model the old vinegar plant, the apple storage warehouse and the Buffington Hotel, which stood near the tracks.

Blair told the Lions how the Buffington Hotel was built south of Maysville and then, when its owner learned the K.C.P. and G. was not coming through the town, he took the building down brick by brick, moved it to Gravette and rebuilt it near the junction of the two railroads.

Blair brought along several books of railroad history, including a Railroads of Benton County Timeline, "Railroads of Northwest Arkansas" by R.G. Winn, a KCS color pictorial book, and "Railroad Stations and Trains through Arkansas and the Southwest" by Clifton E. Hall, which contained photos of the depots at Sulphur Springs, Gravette and Gentry.

Also at the meeting, the Lions announced plans for eye testing at Glenn Duffy Elementary later in the week and for their observance of White Cane Day, Saturday, Oct. 17. Local Lions will be out at several locations in town that day accepting donations for their sight conservation projects. They will soon be selling pecans for holiday baking and will participate in the fall festival at Ozarks Community Hospital Oct. 31.

Community on 10/14/2015