Louisiana and Arkansas Railway

The Louisiana and Arkansas Railway (L&A) was a railroad that began in the 1890s as a short operation in southwestern Arkansas. It greatly expanded by construction and absorbing other railroads. Decades after its beginning, a route that extended from New Orleans through Shreveport in Louisiana to Dallas, Texas, became the main line, while the original route in Arkansas was relegated to a lesser status. The L&A was dissolved into the Kansas City Southern Railway in 1992. Although much of what had been L&A lines in Louisiana and Texas continue to operate in the twenty-first century, most of its tracks in Arkansas have been abandoned.

Beginning
The completion of the Texas and St. Louis Railroad (which would become the St. Louis Southwestern Railway) across southwestern Arkansas opened new timber-harvesting opportunities. A lumber mill established at Stamps (Lafayette County) near the new railroad was reconstituted as the Bodcaw Lumber Company in 1889. Soon, William Buchanan became the dominant owner and president of the enterprise.

To facilitate delivery of timber to the sawmill, Bodcaw began constructing a line that one newspaper referred to as a “tram road,” extending southward from a connection with the St. Louis Southwestern at Stamps. By the end of 1895, the rails reached into the southwestern corner of Columbia County and passenger service over a sixteen-mile segment between Stamps and Bussey (Columbia County) was offered under the name Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad. A cryptic 1890s newspaper item implied that the railroad at this time was colloquially known as the “Bodcaw Road.”

By January 1897, both the rails and passenger service had crossed the state line into far northwestern Louisiana. Also, within that year, the railroad became a separate department within Bodcaw, and the railroad filed records with the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).

It was not until early 1898 that the railroad was incorporated in Arkansas. Becoming an independent company entailed purchasing thirty-eight miles of line that Bodcaw had constructed. Construction in 1898 extended the line southward to Cotton Valley, Louisiana. During this era, branch lines stretched into the surrounding forests, including one from Taylor (Columbia County) eastward across the southern edge of Columbia County. Early company maps showed an intended extension to Haughton, Louisiana, but the routing was soon redirected.

Upper management positions were at Texarkana, Texas, and St. Louis, while the general office was in Stamps. The early 1900s saw managerial positions move to Texarkana (Miller County), while the operating hub remained in Stamps.

In 1900, acquisition of the twenty-two-mile Arkansas, Louisiana and Southern allowed the L&A to reach Minden and Sibley, where there was a connection with a Shreveport-to-Vicksburg, Mississippi, railroad. The company was reconstituted as the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway in mid-1902. The L&A had grown to a 125-mile line, with the tracks reaching Winnfield, Louisiana.

Under the banner of the Stamps Construction Company, rails were extended northward from Stamps to reach Hope (Hempstead County) in 1903, where there were connections with St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern (controlled by Missouri Pacific) and St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Co., known as the Frisco. In 1904, there were rumors that the Frisco would take over the L&A. Actually, the Frisco had acquired a minority interest, but the L&A continued to operate independently.

By this time, the L&A was ready to market itself to the rest of the country. It commissioned Louisiana and Arkansas: Its Territory, Industries and Financial Condition, a seventy-seven-page book published in 1904. With many pictures and data tables, it presented the corridor served by the railroad as one offering abundant economic opportunity for farmers and businessmen.

In the coming years, the L&A would expand in Louisiana to reach Shreveport, Alexandria, and Vidalia, where there would be a ferry operation across the Mississippi River to Natchez, Mississippi. There, it met the Mississippi Central, which extended eastward from Natchez. The two railroads would for a time market their combined service route as the Natchez Route.

Interests associated with Harvey Couch in 1927 announced a deal to purchase the L&A. The actual transfer occurred early in 1928. Also in 1928, the L&A completed terms to acquire both the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Co. (LR&N) and the “Texas version” of that company with same name. The new owners reincorporated the L&A as Delaware corporation, with final ICC approval coming in early 1929. General and executive offices were relocated to Shreveport. These two former LR&N lines (which were larger than the L&A) plus some additional trackage rights created a New Orleans-Shreveport-Dallas route, which was to become the L&A’s main focus.

At the end of 1928, the new management began a passenger train between Hope and Shreveport, named the “Shreveporter.” The train (No. 1 Southbound, No. 2 Northbound) carried an overnight sleeping car to and from St. Louis via Little Rock (Pulaski County) that interchanged with Missouri Pacific at Hope. But except for the Shreveporter service, the original line through Stamps became for the most part a secondary line.

By the mid-1930s, Harvey Couch had acquired a block of stock in the Kansas City Southern and was placed on its board of directors. A plan was executed in 1939 for the L&A and Kansas City Southern to effectively be combined, with the L&A becoming a KCS subsidiary. But the L&A continued to operate as a separate company with headquarters in Shreveport.

The Shreveporter was discontinued on January 24, 1962. Over time, the separate identity of the L&A faded. In 1992, the Kansas City Southern dissolved the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway.

In its early years, a significant portion of the L&A’s length was in Arkansas, as was its headquarters. As the railroad evolved, it became a predominately Louisiana and Texas line. With the 1997 federal approval to abandon almost forty-three miles of tracks between the Louisiana state line and the south side of Hope, most of the former L&A in Arkansas disappeared. After abandonment, the right-of-way was used for recreational purposes. The L&A’s wooden depot in Hope, where the tracks cross old U.S. Highway 67, found other uses over the years.

For additional information:
“Announces the Sale of a Southern Road.” New York Times, November 26, 1927, p. 19.

Fair, James R. The Louisiana & Arkansas Railway. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1997.

Louisiana and Arkansas: Its Territory, Industries and Financial Condition. New York: Fisk and Robinson, 1904.