The story of the trains that built Butler County

The Poplar Bluff Museum has tales about us, our family and our history. I want to tell you some of those tales found within the museum walls.

With the timber industry booming, the “St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad” built the first railroad into Poplar Bluff.

In 1873, they built the first depot only to have it burn down in 1890. The railroad began using old boxcars as a depot.

It began passenger service to Little Rock and St. Louis and sold tickets out of the Crown Hotel.

In 1910, the “Iron Mountain Railroad” built a big, two-story, permanent depot that still stands today. The railroad also built a set of steps leading from the depot to the city. These steps are now one of the prominent historic landmarks of Poplar Bluff.

In 1917, the Iron Mountain Railroad merged with the “Missouri Pacific Railroad.” The Missouri Pacific began running their famous “Texas Eagle Line” through Poplar Bluff, providing first class rail service to Little Rock and St. Louis. In 1986, they merged with the Union Pacific Railroad who ran a “freight only” operation. Amtrak continued the “Texas Eagle” service still utilizing the old “Iron Mountain” depot.

In 1901, the “Southern Missouri and Arkansas Railroad” ran through Poplar Bluff providing passenger service to Hoxie Arkansas and to Cape Girardeau. It merged the same year with the “St. Louis San Francisco Railroad” commonly known as the “Frisco.”

The Frisco built a brick depot only to have it destroyed in the 1927 tornado.

The depot was rebuilt on the same site in the Frisco classic style of a Spanish mission. Frisco provided passenger service until 1965 when the railroad folded.

The Spanish-style depot became the Poplar Bluff Police Station, and later the home of the MoArk Railroad Museum.

It is also a historic landmark of Poplar Bluff. The depot is proudly displayed on the patch of the Poplar Bluff Police Department in remembrance of its former home.

In 1900, the largest logging company in Poplar Bluff built its own railroad.

The “Brooklyn Cooperage Company” built the “Butler County Railroad” to feed its 57 Poplar Bluff lumber mills. Although it never built a depot, the railroad established several “timber towns” throughout Butler County.

Harviell, Qulin, Broseley, Neelyville and Fisk are part of the Butler County Railroad legacy.

As the logging industry dried up in 1927, the Butler County Railroad also merged with the Frisco.

Poplar Bluff is rich in railroad lore. Both depots are registered in the “National Register of Historic Places.” The story of the Butler County, Iron Mountain, Southern Missouri and Arkansas, Frisco, Missouri Pacific, Union Pacific and Amtrak railroads can be seen at the MoArk Railroad Museum.

As previously mentioned, the museum is located in the old Frisco Depot located just across from the Black River Coliseum. Just look for the Frisco cabooses and the Union Pacific baggage car located out front. The museum is open every Saturday free of charge from 1-4 p.m. Tell them Mike sent you!

Mike Shane is a veteran, Poplar Bluff resident and board member for the Poplar Bluff Museum.