The Arcadian Branch
Everyone believed the Arcadian Mine was to be a great success. Investors clamored over each other to invest, newspapers proclaimed the new king of copper, and the Mineral Range drank it all up. To that end the railroad built a seven mile branch from the newly built Pt. Mills to the mine that couldn’t fail at the top of Arcadian Hill. It was only a few years later that the bottom fell out on the Arcadian empire, and the mine and mill were abandoned. Mineral Range was left with seven miles of track that went no where. Fortunately for them they were able to make lemonade out of the lemons, using their new branch to more quickly (and cheaply) deliver copper rock from the Centennial and Franklin Mines still operating down at Pt. Mills. For almost 30 years more the line keep chugging along.
But the Arcadian Branch, like all railroads along the Copper Country, would soon be abandoned. The rails were ripped up, and nature allowed to retake the old grades. While nature can reclaim the land once tamed by man, it cannot renew it. Those scars from the Arcadian Branch are still visible on the surface of the land. We use those scars - as well as old maps of the region - to reconstruct the Arcadian Branch as it once was. Enjoy!
View: The Arcadian Branch Map >>