Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit

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.  Photo: City of Montezuma, KS 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 ...

The landscape of Chicago, while in a continuous state of change, has been perhaps most strikingly changed in the area east of the Chicago River. Looking from Ping Tom Memorial Park towards Downtown Chicago with the St. Charles Air Line Bridge in the foreground. As late as the 1970's, the east side of the Chicago River was almost nothing but various railyards and railroad property, easily identifiable in topo maps from the region. Englewood 1972 USGS Topo Map It's quite easy to see just from satellite imagery just how the area has changed, as areas where the rails were once king have given way to new parks , shopping centers, movie theaters and residential buildings.  East of the river, large scale redevelopment and environmental cleanup has taken place, and continues to do so. Source: Google Maps This isn't just unique to Chicago, as Pittsburgh is another example of ongoing redevelopment along it's Allegheny River Waterfront.  Top: Google ...