[1] It was initiated at a town meeting on December 28, 1911, after the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway (WF&NW), a subsidiary of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT), declined to build to their locale.
[1] Formally incorporated January 19, 1912, the railroad's ultimate goal was to create two trunk lines, one running north-northwest to Meade, Kansas to connect to the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P), and the other running east-northeast to Englewood, Kansas to connect to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF).
[1][4] Having little capitalization of its own, unable to talk other railways into financing the effort, and prevented from issuing railroad bonds by Oklahoma law, the town took unorthodox paths to get it built.
[1][2] Progress on connection to the towns of Meade or Englewood was stymied by World War I; and eventually, the partners discarded those goals and decided to build west, further into the Oklahoma Panhandle, to take advantage of the booming wheat industry there.
[1][5] Approval to run the 39.2 miles from Forgan to Hooker—a town on the CRI&P line—was granted January 29, 1924, but obstruction by another railroad and other factors prevented placing the line in full service until December 31, 1927.