The Dodge City Montezuma & Trinidad Railway

The Dodge City Montezuma & Trinidad Railway was a short-lived railroad operating between Dodge City and Montezuma, KS. (Right of Way) 

Looking at a modern rail map of southwest Kansas, one might reasonably assume that Dodge City and Montezuma have always been connected by the same railroad. After all, the two towns remain linked by rail today. 

But this apparent continuity hides a short-lived and politically motivated predecessor: the Dodge City, Montezuma & Trinidad Railway; a railroad whose entire existence was born out of a county seat dispute and whose abandonment reshaped the geography of Gray County.

Original alignment.

The Montezuma we know today was not the original town to bear that name. The present-day community was platted by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in 1912, nearly twenty years after the first Montezuma had already faded into obscurity. That original town, now a ghost town, briefly flourished thanks to a railroad that survived less than five years.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, Gray County was embroiled in a fierce contest for the county seat. Ingalls and Cimarron, both located on an existing branch of the Santa Fe, had a decisive advantage: rail access. Montezuma, by contrast, had none, placing it at a severe economic and political disadvantage.

To resolve the conflict, a railroad promoter offered Montezuma a deal. In exchange for dropping its claim to the county seat, a new railroad would be constructed to connect the town directly with Dodge City. This promise materialized as the Dodge City, Montezuma & Trinidad Railway, a modest line intended to give Montezuma the rail connection it desperately needed to compete.

Ford County Republican, 10/12/1887

"Dodge City is going to be a railroad center from the looks of things now. They are now grading with 500 teams on the Dodge City & Bucklin road, besides work on the Dodge City, Montezuma & Trinidad road will commence in a week or so.—Montezuma Chief.

The entire outfit of the Eureka Irrigating Canal, consisting of fifty head of horses, twelve wagon loads of scoops, and four ditching machines, passed through the city Saturday on their way to Lone Lake, where they go to work on the grade of the Dodge City, Montezuma & Trinidad railroad." (Ford County Republican)

The line followed a route slightly south of the modern Santa Fe alignment, diverging from what would later become the permanent mainline corridor. Though short in length, the railroad briefly transformed Montezuma into a viable commercial center, providing access to markets, supplies, and passengers. For a few years, the town experienced the growth and optimism so often promised by railroads on the Great Plains.

By 1894, the Dodge City, Montezuma & Trinidad Railway was abandoned. The rails were removed, and Montezuma was left once again isolated. Without rail service, the town quickly declined, its brief boom undone almost as fast as it had begun.

In State ex rel. Little v. Dodge City, Montezuma & Trinidad Railway Co. (1894), the Kansas Supreme Court considered whether the state could compel the defunct railroad to resume operations. The Dodge City, Montezuma & Trinidad Railway had completed a short line between Dodge City and Montezuma but never owned its own locomotives or rolling stock, relying instead on another railroad for operation. By 1893, the line had been abandoned, its infrastructure deteriorated or removed, and the company was insolvent and incapable of restoring service. The state sought a writ of mandamus to force the railroad to rebuild and operate the line, but the court refused, holding that mandamus could not be used to require performance that was financially impossible and offered no realistic public benefit. The decision effectively acknowledged the railroad’s collapse and marked a legal endpoint to its already short and troubled existence.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway briefly acquired the abandoned right-of-way and considered reactivating the route. Ultimately, however, the Santa Fe chose a different strategy: instead of rebuilding the old grade, it constructed an entirely new alignment and platted a new town along it.

That town became the modern Montezuma, Kansas. The original Montezuma, now separated from the railroad for good, was gradually abandoned. Buildings were moved or dismantled, residents relocated, and the town faded into the surrounding prairie. Today, little remains beyond subtle traces in the landscape and the faint memory preserved in maps, property lines, and the story of a railroad built not for commerce, but for compromise.

Thanks as always for reading!
Location: Montezuma, KS 67867, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Famine Roads of Ireland: Pathways to Nowhere

Image
Across the rolling hills and rugged landscapes of western Ireland, one can find peculiar relics of a dark chapter in the island’s history. These are the Famine Roads - routes that climb into the hills, twist through valleys, and often end abruptly, leading nowhere. Their haunting presence is a testament to the desperation and suffering endured by countless Irish peasants during the Great Famine of 1845–1852. "One of the many roads to nowhere built during the Famine" (Image via sboins on Reddit ) The Great Famine , or Án Gorta Mór, was a catastrophic period in Ireland’s history, marked by mass starvation, disease, and emigration. Over one million people perished, and another two million fled the country, profoundly altering Ireland’s demographic and cultural landscape. In an era dominated by the rigid doctrines of laissez-faire economics, relief efforts were minimal, and assistance often came with cruel conditions. Under the Poor Law and its amendments, relief programs were es...
Read more

The Underwater Water Slide: Fly Over at Durinrell TikiBad

Image
Have you ever wished to experience being transferred from one pool of liquid to another via a pipe? Had you visited the Dutch water park known as Durinrell , also known as Tikibad before 2010, you would have had the chance. Half water slide, half war crime, this was a unique water slide that was filled to the brim with water, leaving riders completely submerged throughout the journey. Image:  XtremeRidesNL Known as the Fly Over was an underwater water slide, which is exactly how it sounds, and transported riders from one pool to another using the water as propulsion. Built in 1994, riders dove underwater to access the slide, using gravity to transport them upwards via the Communicating Vessels Principle . Riders would be completely underwater for about 15-20 seconds. This is how I imagine those 15-20 seconds felt like while riding the slide. The slide was built to drain water in five seconds or less in case a rider got stuck in the slide or had a medical emergency, but the threat...
Read more

Railroad Vocabulary: A List of Words and Phrases Used in the Industry - Updated February 2024

Image
As somebody who enjoyed watching trains, but was not an employee of the railroad industry ( at least growing up ), when I would interact with railfans and historians, there was often a lot of technical jargon that applied only to the railroad industry thrown back and forth that made it difficult for a newcomer to understand what they were talking about. For example, what is a dinky? It's actually a passenger train. This non-inclusive language seems to keep the loop closed to members of the community, and to uncouple (no pun intended) that technical jargon and help make it easier for people to communicate with people in the industry, I am creating a list of railroad vocabulary that I'm hoping will make the industry more transparent.  BNSF 2361 . Image: Matt Flores While I ultimately believe that such technical jargon has no place outside of perhaps technical communications between employees, I know quite well that I alone am not going to stop people from communicating in a non-i...
Read more