1927. Into the hands of the receiver again.
1935. The road was sold at auction and bought by the Kell family of Wichita Falls, Texas, for $350,000. The name was changed to the Missouri and Arkansas.
1941-42. Offices and shops at Harrison were destroyed by fire.
1945. A disastrous flood destroyed much track.
1946. On September 6 there was a walkout of employees which led to an application for the abandonment of the property.
1948. Movement was started to reorganize and resume operations.
1949. The line was purchased and reorganized. The section between Cotton Plant and Helena was revived as the Helena and Northwestern Railroad. It started operations early in the year. The trackage between Harrison, Arkansas and Seligman, Missouri became the Arkansas and Ozarks Railway. Two Diesel engines were purchased for this 65-mile line. Trains carry carload shipments only and the amount of business regulates the size and frequency of trains. The sections between Joplin and Seligman in Missouri and from Harrison to Cotton Plant have been junked.
That is a brief history of the “turbulent” North Arkansas Railroad. Few railroads in our history have taken the severe beatings this road has suffered. But the business men and farmers of the central Ozarks are determined that this section have a railroad. When abandonment was apparent in 1947-48, they arose like the embattled farmers of Concord and Lexington and began a fight that has saved the road. Now it is in a modified form with freight service only and over only a fraction of the original 369 miles of trackage, but residents of the state are well pleased with the service and the line appears to be doing well.
The best historical narrative on the North Arkansas Railway is included in Jesse Lewis Russell’s history of northwest Arkansas, Behind These Ozark Hills (published in 1947). Pages 116 to 156 are devoted to the “turbulent career” of this line.
In 1901 there was great excitement when the stretch of road from Eureka Springs to Harrison was completed. People at the Spa hired rigs to drive them forty-five miles to Harrison in order to ride the first train back. It was a time for celebration and on the streets and in the shops and hotel lobbies this verse was sung: