Railroad Wars

When he learned of this, the sheriff of Placer County ordered the Auburn Greys, a local militia, to pick up where his deputies had left off.

The road was safe for the time being, but, soon after, the California Supreme Court got involved and sided with the Sacramento Valley Railroad.

Now that the Sacramento Valley company had permission from the state to continue removing the road, the Central Pacific was forced to build their own line to Auburn, which was completed on May 13, 1865.

In 1878, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe was competing against the Denver and Rio Grande to put the first line through Raton Pass.

Faced with this threat, and running out of money, the Denver and Rio Grande was forced to cede the pass to its rivals.

The Denver and Rio Grande had hired its own gunfighters so the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe decided to strengthen its forces.

With the assistance of the sheriffs in the counties through which the railroads passed, the Denver and Rio Grande mounted an attack on its rival's forces.

In the late 1880s, the Rock Island Railroad built a line into the Indian Territory, entering near Caldwell, Kansas and following the Chisholm Trail.

[citation needed] The problems began when the Department of the Interior set about opening the Cherokee Outlet to settlement.

Following the announcement of the official county seats, several Cherokee citizens began claiming land allotments, choosing sites near Pond Creek and Enid.

The Rock Island company responded by installing a type of hook on their trains to pick up and deliver mail without having to slow down.

Citizens in both government towns attempted to flag down trains or force them to stop by placing dummies on the tracks and leaving wagons and debris across the rails.

In June 1894, the people of Pond Creek tore up about a hundred yards of railroad and wrecked a freight train.

Later that month, a group of unknown assailants sawed partially through a number of wooden supports on the trestle near Enid, which led to the wrecking of another freight train.

Finally, the United States Senate decided to intervene and on August 8, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed an act which required railroads "to establish and maintain passenger stations and freight depots at or within one-fourth of a mile of the boundary limits of all town sites established prior to August 8, 1894, in said Territories."