A Look at the History of the Arcata & Mad River Railroad

Arcata and Mad River Railroad Number 2, the “Arcata” built by Porter in 1882, c/n 469. The A&MR was built to the unusual gauge of 45 1/4″. The “Arcata” was photographed on the railroad’s Humboldt Bay wharf.

The Arcata was one of four engines in use on the Arcata & Mad River Railroad (AMR) in 1890, often referred to as the Annie and Mary in reference to the railroad’s initials.

The AMR originally started as a plank road, eventually extending out into Humboldt Bay to load lumber schooners at its first incorporation in 1854 as the Union Plank Walk, Rail Track, Wharf Company before being named the Arcata Mad River Railroad in 1881.

The wooden planks were covered with strap iron “to provide access over the mud flats near the town of Union (later Arcata)”, according to liquidsearch.com.

Soon, the use of horse-drawn car using the railway linked Humboldt Bay to the Trinity River mines. “Later, locomotives were added as the line grew to serve the redwood industry,” states the California Parks website.

AMR was incorporated in 1881 with Francis Korbel listed as AMR’s first president. By 1882, AMR replaced the wooden planks with iron rails, though an unusual gauge, narrower than standard rails.

By 1890, the AMR had four engines: The Arcata, North Fork, Eureka and Blue Lake with an additional engine added in 1901 named the Hoopa. “In the 1890s the railroad’s principal commodities were lumber, shingles, and potatoes,” stated the liquidsearch article.

The railroad was connected to the Bay Area by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in October 1914. However, it was another 11 years before the AMR replaced its small gauge tracks with standard rail in 1925.

According to this Arcata and Mad River Railway History article, the railroad was quite lucrative:

The railroad was eventually extended 7.5 miles (12.1 km) from Arcata to the Northern Redwood Company mill at Korbel. The Northern Redwood Company was owned by the Charles Nelson Steamship Company. It was over 10 years after the arrival of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP) in Arcata in 1914 that the steamship company allowed an interchange between the AMR and the NWP at Korblex. During the lumber boom of the 1950s, the Annie and Mary served fifteen shippers on its 7.5-mile (12.1 km) railroad. The average daily car loadings were enough to place the road among the highest paying railroad properties per mile in the United States.

The California Parks and Recreation Department’s website states, “the Arcata and Mad River Rail Road is the oldest line on the north coast”. The railway was eventually sold to the Simpson Lumber Company in 1960 before being shut down and abandoned in 1985. Three years later the Eureka Southern Railroad bought the line in 1988.

With lots of fits and starts, the AMR last ran in 1992 with all fixtures being removed in 1998.

Note: Many thanks to Carl Young who brings old photos to life by colorizing them. He often posts his enlivened photos on Humboldt County, California in pictures, old and new.