Historical Railroads in Rowan!
One thing you might not know about Rowan County is that historically, we had a thriving system of railroads.
By 1880, railroad workers had surpassed sawmill workers as the most populous trade in Rowan County. The Elizabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad was the first railroad through Rowan County in the 1880's. It was completed in 1881, and many workers came to Rowan County solely because of the work opportunity it created. The Elizabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad crews also built the Morehead Depot and the Freight Station in 1881 on Railroad Street, which is now First Street. Both buildings have been restored and are being used -the Depot is now the Chamber of Commerce office, and the Freight Station is the Morehead History and Railroad Museum. The Elizabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad was purchased by the C&O Railroad in 1892 and ran until 1985 in Rowan County. Other railroads in the county were: Triplet and Big Sandy Railroad, Kentucky Northern Railroad, Christy Creek Railroad, Morehead and North Fork Railroad.
Morehead and North Fork Railroad (1906-1973)
Originally called the Morehead and West Liberty Railroad in 1900 and founded by a group of Wall Street investors but it only managed to lay four miles of track before funds were depleted. The excavation of a lengthy tunnel through Clack Mountain was too much for the company and they sold it in 1905 to the Clearfield Lumber Company of Clearfield, Pennsylvania who had acquired large timber holdings along the North Fork of the Licking River. Its subsidiary, the Lee Coal Company, had similarly acquired the mineral rights for coal. To extract both resources, the Morehead & North Fork Railroad (M&NF) was incorporated on September 27, and construction of the line began at its northern terminus with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) in Morehead in 1906. By 1908 the track was complete from Clearfield to Redwine in Morgan County complete with three tunnels: Clack Mountain, Paragon/Poppin Rock and Twin Tunnels, which is actually in Morgan County.
These tunnels were hundreds of feet of rock bored by steel drills and dedicated workers from diverse backgrounds. Clack Mountain tunnel was 1334 feet long and entire timber lined. The Poppin Rock tunnel at Paragon was 725 feet of solid rock. The Twin Tunnels, also known as the Wrigley Arch, was created by the Morehead & North Fork Railroad in 1907 and a smaller arch was built for the creek so they didn’t have to build two bridges. The Wrigley Arch has a span of 35 ft. and an opening height of 50 feet.
Timber resources were exhausted by the early 1920s which forced the Clearfield Lumber Company to close in 1922. In 1925, the site was converted into Lee Clay Products, a refractory brick manufacturer, which acquired its basic material, clay, from nearby Clack Mountain which was moved to the plant by the Morehead and North Fork Railroad.
During prosperous times, the railroad had two passenger round trips daily and had a merchandise train, two daily log trains and one or more coal trains and 13 steam locomotives. In 1926, the Morehead and North Fork Railroad purchased a gasoline vehicle affectionately called "The Blue Goose". It made daily round trips between Morehead and Redwine. During the depression, the other passenger trips were cut from the 25 miles to Wrigley in Morgan County to about four miles from Clearfield to Clack Mountain. In 1934, The Blue Goose was sold to the California Western Railroad.
In 1933, the Morehead and North Fork Railroad was dismantled between Clack Mountain and Redwine, leaving only four miles operational between the C&O in Morehead and the clay mine. The railroad was sold to a private owner not long after Lee Clay closed in 1970 and it became the Morgan & Morgan Fork Railroad (M&MF). In 1976, four Baldwin diesel locomotives were acquired for the railroad which remained operational for its sole customer, a lumber yard that reopened on the site of the former brick plant.
A fire in April 1982 destroyed the drying kilns that provided the only freight opportunity for the Morehead and North Fork Railroad. After the C&O through Morehead was dismantled in early 1985, the railroad was mothballed until June 2001 when the remaining Morehead and North Fork Railroad tracks were removed and the Baldwin locomotives relocated.
The Rowan County History and Railroad Museum re-opened on March 4, 2022. There are some new displays and activities coming this summer such as a 1/8 scale of the Paragon Tunnel, the Great Paper Airplane Contest and the Train Show this fall. For information on the Museum, contact Rick Charles, President 606-683-2457.
Sources
1880 Rowan County Census
When the Railroad leaves Town -Joseph P. Schwieterman
https://abandonedonline.net/location/morehead-north-fork-railroad/
Sulzer, Elmer G. “Up North Fork Way.” Ghost Railroads of Kentucky.
Stephen Young, Clearfield, KY
Fred Brown, Jr. "Days to Remember" Newspaper articles
Fred Brown Jr. "Steam in the Heart"
Helen Price Stacy Newspaper Article Nov2 1974?
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2ZZMW_abandoned-railroads-40-morehead-and-north-fork
https://visitwestliberty.com/things-to-do/sports-and-recreation/