A railroad brings prestige to a community. It may also bring prosperity by carrying to market what the community produces. So in 1912 the citizens of Forgan, at the entrance of the wheat-rich Oklahoma Panhandle, were glad when the Wichita Falls & Northwestern (now part of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas) chose their town for a terminus. And the folk of Beaver, the county seat seven miles to the south, were chagrined because railroadless Beaver was outdone. They pooled their wheat receipts, hired a teamster at $4 a day, graded the land by eye, started...
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