A century ago, the Klamath Basin held nearly 35 billion board feet of timber, but between 1865 and 1900 small sawmills cut only some lumber for local use, and railroads were essential to building a thriving forest products economy. The Southern Pacific line reached Klamath Falls in 1909. In 1916, Robert E. Strahorn persuaded local investors to launch the Klamath Falls Municipal Railway to penetrate the pine forests of the eastern Klamath Basin. Three years later he bought the line and absorbed it into the Oregon, California and Eastern Railway, announcing plans to extend the railroad north to Bend and east to Lakeview and Burns. Despite fits, starts, and changes of ownership, the Oregon, California and Eastern became a major log-hauling railroad. Although it never left Klamath County, for eight decades its locomotives hauled raw materials and finished products to mills and markets. By 1900, the railroad had been phased out, and the line was later restored as the Oregon, California and Eastern Woods Line State Trail through the national Rails to Trails project.