Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad

The Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad was a railroad that operated in the state of Arkansas between 1853 and 1875. It came to national prominence when its bonds were the subject of a scandal involving Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine in 1876.

The original shareholders of the Little Rock and Fort Smith wished to create a mode of transit not tied to the level of the Arkansas River and saw an opportunity to do so when they received a federal land grant in 1853. Although the road was, as the name suggests, initially intended to connect the cities of Little Rock and Fort Smith, Arkansas, the railroad's president, Jesse Turner, and chief engineer, J.H. Haney, hoped to one day use the road to build a network as far as the Atlantic Ocean. Financial conditions following the Panic of 1857 meant that progress was delayed and by 1860 the railroad was out of money. The Arkansas General Assembly advanced them $38,000 that year, but the outbreak of the American Civil War effectively halted construction the next year.

After the war, the state legislature passed a railroad aid bill in 1867, but Turner believed it would be inadequate to their needs, and sought aid from Northern capitalists. Turner resigned in 1868, but the new president, Charles G. Scott, managed to secure some investors' interest the following year. After replacing some directors to accommodate the investors' demands, the railroad prepared to, at last, begin construction. Construction had been so long delayed that the federal land grant was set to expire, but Arkansas Congressman Logan H. Roots convinced Speaker James G. Blaine to help him to pass a bill extending the deadline to April 28, 1870. The railroad was then re-incorporated and granted $1.5 million in state bonds to aid the construction efforts.

To facilitate construction, Haney hired Asa P. Robinson, a Connecticut-born civil engineer. Robinson effectively took over the construction process and reorganized the labor force, bringing in white laborers from Illinois to replace the black laborers the railroad had already hired. Ironically, the variable flows of the Arkansas River delayed construction further when the river was too low to transport heavy equipment, but by February 1870 the first 20 miles were nearly complete. By April 23, enough track was laid to secure the land grant. By September 29 of that year, thirty-seven miles of track were complete.

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