The Ghost Railroad That Never Reached Benton City
A failed land investment lawsuit reveals how the death of a railroad titan doomed a town's hopes for becoming a major terminal.
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.
Judge Thatcher dismissed the $1,500 land fraud case of O. B. Thatcher against F. L. Pittman yesterday after Robert E. Strahorn, former president of the North Coast railroad, declared it was the death of E. H. Harriman and not the fault of the road officials that they had failed to build to Benton. Mr. Thatcher contended he was misled by representatives of Mr. Pittman and other railroad men who predicted Benton would be a big town and terminal. He says he invested $1,500 on the strength of the representation, but the road failed to do as the officers had planned. Mr. Strahorn testified that it was the intentions of the North Coast to build, but that after Mr. Harriman’s death it was decided to change the plan. He said the North Coast was never an independent line but controlled by the O.-W. R. & N. company.
“It was the death of E. H. Harriman and not the fault of the road officials that they had failed to build to Benton.”
The promise of a railroad terminal was the 20th-century equivalent of a tech hub or major manufacturing plant announcement—a speculative boom that could make or break property values overnight. Benton City remains a small community today, a permanent reminder of how mid-sized town fortunes were once dictated by the boardrooms of distant, powerful railroad conglomerates.
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