The Monte Ne Railroad Station about 1905. Note the Monte Ne Railway Engine No. 1 and passenger car behind the station. The station was located about a hundred yards east of the present day amphitheater. (Photo courtesy of the Rogers Historical Museum)

The Monte Ne Railroad
By James F. Hales

Coin Harvey began building his resort at Monte Ne in 1900, and the biggest obstacle from the beginning was transportation for the tourists. The roads to Monte Ne were just wagon trails, and virtually impassable in the winter. Harvey tried in vain to convince the people of Rogers to construct a better and shorter road to Monte Ne. The business leaders of Rogers were not interested in improving roads that would take their trade to some other town. Harvey decided to build a road to his resort himself, but through the Cross Hollows valley to Lowell. In April 1901, Harvey reported in the Rogers Democrat that all of the easements except for one, had been secured to build a Lowell to Monte Ne turnpike.

While the turnpike was under construction, Harvey was also planning a railroad to Monte Ne that would provide easy access for large numbers of people. In January of 1902, Harvey made a deal with the Frisco Railroad to build a line to Monte Ne. The agreement required Harvey to secure the land, lay the rail bed, and provide the ties. The Frisco workmen would lay the line, with the rails remaining the property of the Frisco. The Frisco agreed to rent the rails at $100 per track mile per year, for a total of $400 per year.

The Lowell to Monte Ne Turnpike provided the opportunity for an instant right-of-way for the railroad bed. The turnpike was never completed, for the incorporators quickly quitclaimed their right-of-way on July 31, 1902 to the Monte Ne Railway Company for the new railroad bed. Of course, Coin Harvey was president of the Monte Ne Railway Company.

In order for the tourists to arrive in style, the Monte Ne Railway Company built a large depot at the resort on the bank of the lake near Big Spring. It was made of six-inch logs with two floors, and two large open-air wings that served as outdoor waiting rooms. It is interesting to note that the first floor of the depot contained two waiting rooms, each 13 x 17 feet, one for whites and one for blacks, as that was the law. The agent had a slightly larger office in the center with a bay window that faced the track. The second floor was 18 x 34 feet and contained quarters for the agent. The description of the depot did not include any restrooms; I wonder what the waiting passengers did for bathroom facilities. (Excerpts from The Scrambler, the newsletter of the Arkansas-Boston Mountain Chapter, National Railway Historical Society, Vol. 16, No. 11, Aug. 2003, courtesy of the Rogers Historical Museum)

The Monte Ne Railway had only an engine and one car, and limped along for several years with erratic service from the resort to Lowell. It was staffed entirely by Coin’s son, Tom Harvey, and his friend, Tony LeBlanc. The two alternated in their crew positions as engineer and fireman at the front, and conductor and brakeman at the rear. In the early days, from 1902-1909, most of the guests were brought to Monte Ne on special Frisco excursion trains.

The Monte Ne Railway Company went broke and was revived several times, but was finally sold to the Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Western Railroad (AO&W) on Dec. 3, 1909. Warren Felker, of Rogers, owned the AO&W, and he intended to use the Monte Ne Railway as a link to build a railroad from Eureka Springs to Siloam Springs and westward. However, the company had financial difficulties and went bankrupt about 1910.

The Kansas City & Memphis Railroad (KC&M), also owned by Warren Felker, bought the defunct AO&W in 1911. The KC&M owned a line from Rogers to Cave Springs, and planned to expand east through Monte Ne and across the Ozarks toward Memphis. Lack of business caused the passenger service to Monte Ne to be discontinued in 1914, but that was not the end of the story. The line continued to be used for logs and freight.

In 1912, the Ozark Land and Lumber Company, owned by Roscoe Hobbs of Rogers, had 12,500 acres of timber east of Monte Ne. (This land is now Hobbs State Park) To harvest the oak logs, the company built a huge bridge and trestle across the White River, and extended the line from Monte Ne to Piney. The company built the line and bridge, and leased them to the KC&M railroad. The 60 foot high, 600-foot long White River bridge was the longest railroad span in Benton County.

David Kennan, the owner of Rogers Transfer and Storage, contends that the track went east from Monte Ne across the bridge and all the way to Lookout. The railroad used the bridge to bring loads of logs across the river into Monte Ne, but a few years after the bridge was built, it became unstable. The engineers on the train did not trust the bridge, so they would stop before crossing, and one man walked to the other side. Then the engineer put the train in gear and hopped off the engine, letting the train and load of logs cross the bridge passengerless. On the other side, the man waiting would hop onto the moving train and stop it, and wait for his fellow workers to walk across the bridge, rejoin the train, and continue the trip into Monte Ne. (Interview with David Kennan by James Hales on June 13, 1908)

The KC&M discontinued operations in November 1918 during World War I. The line was abandoned, the tracks were taken up, and the railroad to Monte Ne was gone forever. (Much of the information came from Gale Hall, a local railroad authority; various articles in the Rogers Democrat; Coin Harvey, Prophet of Monte Ne by Lois Snelling; and Coin Harvey and His Monte Ne by J. Dickson Black)