The Narrow Gauge Line Passes to New Ownership
A deed filed in Walla Walla marks the transfer of the historic Dixie line from the O.R. & N. Company to a local outfit.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A deed was filed in the county auditor's office this morning transferring the narrow gauge railroad from Walla Walla to Dixie and the branch to Dudley from the Oregon Railway & Navigation company to the Mill Creek Railroad company. The deed was executed November 23 at Portland. The instrument calls for a complete transfer of the entire railroad track, real estate, buildings, rolling stock, telegraph lines, rights of way and franchises. The consideration was $87,500. The Mill Creek Railroad company was organized in Walla Walla October 12, 1903, by Lester S. Wilson, Charles F. Van De Water and Joseph Merchant, with a capital stock of $88,000. The road was constructed many years ago by the Mill Creek Flume & Manufacturing company, which used it for a long time in transporting wood from the mountains to Walla Walla. It was afterward sold to the Oregon Railway Navigation company, which company has operated it in connection with its standard gauge road. Nearly all the wheat raised in the Mill Creek and Dixie sections of the country is brought to market over this road.
“The instrument calls for a complete transfer of the entire railroad track, real estate, buildings, rolling stock, telegraph lines, rights of way and franchises.”
This sale of a critical rural spur highlights the 1903 transition toward local control of infrastructure that fed Walla Walla’s wheat economy. Today, while the tracks are largely gone, the struggle over who controls regional transit and land-access rights remains a central tension in Eastern Washington's development.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.