The route was primarily constructed to transport coal from the mines at Lehigh to Purcell in order to service steam locomotives on the Santa Fe, which maintained a division point at that location.
Financing for the OCR was largely provided by investors on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, through a bond issue backed by veteran financial writer Frederik Van Oss.
Carter, who was a prominent lawyer, banker, and developer in Purcell, I.T., approached Van Oss through a group of Chicago banking acquaintances and secured an initial issue of $852,000.
Suspecting that a finance scam may have been underfoot, Van Oss sent a representative, Gerrit Middelberg, to Purcell to monitor the construction of the road and operations of the company.
Middelberg's colorful letters belie a distaste for the living conditions and cuisine of the frontier, and a deep suspicion of Mr. Carter.
[citation needed] In addition to the dummy construction company that was "building" the line, the OCR also involved itself in forced real estate developments.
Management would then negotiate with local farmers to purchase land (using bond notes supplied by the Dutch) and then plat a new town around the railroad.
This practice was well documented by the Chickasaw News in 1906, a newspaper from McGee, I.T., which was relocated by this process three miles (5 km) to south and is now called Stratford.
Unfortunately, the coal-burning steam locomotives of the Santa Fe had primarily switched to fuel oil, and the coal traffic from Lehigh became less profitable.
The tracks curved west sharply at the north edge of town and passed between two mine pits on a narrow patch of unexcavated ground.
North of town, the great earthworks that carried the OCR main line over the Santa Fe are still visible, including some cut off trestle pilings.
The only stretch of surviving OCR main line is in place across the street to the north of this, a single switch and hundred feet or so of track.