Railroad to a Brighter Future

In the early 1920's, Burns was a town of dirt streets and wooden sidewalks beside woods of untouched ponderosa, but one of the biggest timber sales in the United States soon changed life in the area. The sale required the buyer to build a railroad between Crane and Seneca and a mill along the line in Burns. By 1929, carloads of logs were moving through the forest, and prosperity in Burns increased as the communities of Hines and Seneca emerged as homes for woodsmen, railroad workers, and their families. Steam locomotives first hauled logs to the mills, diesel locomotives took over in 1955, logging trucks eventually assumed a larger role in moving timber, and forest roads were built on former spur lines. The railroad was abandoned in 1984, though much of its old grade remains visible between there and Seneca from Highway 395.

Oregon · United States