Sprague & Big Bend Railroad

From “History of The Big Bend Country.”

1904

Rather too sanguine hopes were awakened in the minds of Davenport residents in January, 1887, by unfounded railroad enthusiasm. The moving spring of this unwarranted excitement was the survey of the “Sprague & Big Bend Railroad” from the town of Sprague to “Wild Goose Bill’s,” a distance of forty-tow miles. It was the claim of the engineer at that time that this road could be built for $7,000 a mile. It was, also, the recommendation of Major Sears that a branch road be built to tap the Mondovi, Fairview, and Davenport countries, leaving the main line at Minnie Falls Mills, on Crab creek. This line he estimated could be constructed for $4,000 per mile. But nothing eventuated from either of these schemes and gradually the well-advertised details of the enterprise faded from memory.