The Santa Fe and Grand Canyon Railroad (SF&GC) was a 56-mile railroad that ran from

Williams, Arizona Williams ( yuf-x-hav, Wii Gvʼul) is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, located west of Flagstaff. Its population was 3,023 at the 2010 census. It lies on the routes of Historic Route 66 and Interstate 40. It is also the souther ...

to take mining supplies and people to the copper mines near Anita. In 1901, the SF&GC was sold at

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

and became the Grand Canyon Railway, a subsidiary of the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

. Today the line is a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

owned by the Grand Canyon Railway (not related to the earlier railway) providing excursions to the Grand Canyon.

History

The SF&GC was incorporated on July 31, 1897. On June 1, 1899, grading commenced and by October 1899 rails were being laid. By June 1900 the railroad was operating over a 56-mile line between Williams and Anita. Although the railway was named after the Grand Canyon, it never reached the canyon, stopping about 15 miles south of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at the mining town of Anita. The railway quickly fell into financial problems and on September 5, 1900 was placed in

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

. In July 1901 the SF&GC was sold under

to the

. The ATSF quickly began construction of the fifteen remaining miles of track to extend the line to the Grand Canyon. The line to the Grand Canyon was completed on September 16, 1901, and was renamed the Grand Canyon Railway.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Fe Grand Canyon Railroad Defunct Arizona railroads Predecessors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Grand Canyon Railway companies established in 1897 Railway companies disestablished in 1901 1897 establishments in Arizona Territory 1901 disestablishments in Arizona Territory

History

See also

References