April 12, 2007

What became known as the Reader Railroad began in 1889 as a narrow-gauge sawmill line running through parts of Ouachita and Nevada counties. Sold several times over the years, by 1925 it was renamed in honor of the town of Reader, which lies on the border between the two counties. As business declined, the railroad was converted into a tourist excursion train in 1980. During its approximately eleven years of operation, over 100,000 tourists rode the train. Unfortunately, this was not enough to keep it solvent, forcing the excursion venture to close in 1991.