[2] Robert Dortch, Jr. had established the Scott and Bearskin Lake Railroad as part of the Plantation Agriculture Museum near Scott, Arkansas, in the 1960s and after his death in 1978, his son closed it and began moving steam locomotives, rolling stock and trackage to the Victorian tourist destination Eureka Springs.

[4][5] He and his wife, Mary Jane, and sons David, John, and Robert set about restoring the historic stone depot, and re-building several trestles over Leatherwood Creek on the pike.

A steel water tank was added, as well as a few outbuildings and a commissary adjacent to the old ice house/electric plant building to prepare meals for the luncheon and dinner trains.

The working yard - with many switches, lights, outbuildings, a functional electric-powered 75-foot (23 m) turntable and water tower - is punctuated with dozens of static displays: two steam-powered tractors, early gas-powered tractors, compressors, pumps, wheelsets, and assorted railroad paraphernalia - a two-man handcar, "tricycle"-type one-man handcar, bells, signals, and luggage carts.

The owners have long had hopes to extend the line east 3 miles (4.8 km) to the old Missouri & North Arkansas tunnel and/or west 5 miles (8.0 km) to Beaver, Arkansas through the Narrows, a gap in the rocky ridge short of the old railroad river bridge there.

[14] Built in 1913, the depot is a repository for dozens of railroadiana items, including props which helped disguise the two Moguls as 1860s 4-4-0 American engines for the filming of scenes from the 1982 television mini-series The Blue and the Gray.