San Francisco and Northwestern Railway (SF&NW) was an

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 ...

subsidiary formed in 1903 to connect

Humboldt Bay Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between Sa ...

to the Santa Fe rail system. The

Eel River and Eureka Railroad The Eel River and Eureka Railroad company was organized on November 14, 1882, by a group of Eureka businessmen led by John M. Vance (b. Nova Scotia October 1, 1821 – d. January 1892). One of the other founders of the line was William Carso ...

had been built in 1884 to provide Humboldt Bay shipping access to lumber mills and farms of the lower Eel River. Subsidiary California Midland Railroad was formed in 1902 to extend the line up the

Van Duzen River The Van Duzen River is a river on the north coast of California. It is a major tributary of the Eel River and drains , mostly in Humboldt County, with a small portion in Trinity County. The river travels from its headwaters on the west side o ...

to Carlotta. In 1885,

Pacific Lumber Company The Pacific Lumber Company, officially abbreviated PALCO, and also commonly known as PL, was one of California's major logging and sawmill operations, located 28 miles (45 km) south of Eureka and 244 miles (393 km) north of San Francisc ...

built a rail connection from their

Scotia Scotia is a Latin placename derived from ''Scoti'', a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century.Duffy, Seán. ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2005. p.698 The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" around ...

lumber mill to the Eel River and Eureka Railroad at Alton. Logging branches extended 8 miles up the Eel River by 1902. The California and Northern Railway was formed in 1900 to build north from

Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...

. Rails reached

Arcata Arcata (; Wiyot: ''Goudi’ni''; Yurok: ''Oket'oh'') is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. Arcata was first ...

by 1903. SF&NW acquired the

, its subsidiary California Midland, and the Pacific Lumber Company rail lines in 1903. Purchase of the California and Northern Railway in 1904 gave SF&NW a main line from Arcata to the Eel River upstream of Scotia. Santa Fe's distinctive circled cross herald appeared on the Eureka Depot.

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

had simultaneously secured control of the logging lines north of Arcata through their subsidiary Oregon and Eureka Railroad. Both Santa Fe and Southern Pacific had ambitions of building their own connections to Humboldt County lumber mills; but SF&NW was merged into the jointly owned

Northwestern Pacific Railroad The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a regional shortline railroad utilizing a stretch of the 271 mile mainline between Schellville and Windsor with freight and Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) commuter trains. Formerly, it was a regi ...

in 1907.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:San Francisco Northwestern Railway Defunct California railroads Eureka, California Transportation in Humboldt County, California Predecessors of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Railway companies established in 1903 Railway companies disestablished in 1907 American companies disestablished in 1907 1903 establishments in California 1907 disestablishments in California