This railroad received a charter from the state of Arkansas on April 7, 1897, and track construction between Jonesboro and Blytheville began soon thereafter.

[1] By the time the railroad line was extended to Blytheville in the summer of 1901, several large sawmills were either in operation or being built along the tracks.

[2] On January 2, 1905, the WNR purchased an existing 10-mile private logging rail line, constructed as early as 1884, that was owned by Wilson.

[2][3] It then had constructed on its behalf an additional 7 miles of track from Keiser to Ross, Arkansas, where it had a connection with the JLC&E.

[4] The engine is preserved on the Lee Wesson Plantation in Victoria, Arkansas[5] under the Delta Valley & Southern Locomotive No.

[7] After performing freight service for years, both engines were sold in 1947 to the Mississippian Railway where they retained the Frisco numbers.

40 is now owned by the B&O Railroad Museum in Oakland, Maryland, where it has been renumbered and relettered as the Baltimore & Ohio 476,[9] and No.