The Newton and Northwestern Railroad

On a cold and windy January day, Bryan and I and my Seeing Eye dog put on our boots and trudge through the snow in the field across the road. The snow is knee-deep, and the crust that had formed on it can’t hold our weight. Each step punches through the crust to land knee-deep in the soft snow below. It is hard going for this city girl who had spent the past ten years on paved and cleared city streets. The dog is light enough to prance along on top of the snow, sniffing, dancing, wagging in joyous abandon.

At the far edge of the little field is a steep ravine. We slide and scramble down the bank some 15 feet to the bottom where the snow is deeper but we are sheltered from the wind. In front of us is the other bank of the ravine, and if we climb it, we will find another similar ravine on the other side. We pause to listen to the wind roaring in the naked trees above. In the ravine, the only sound is the dog panting. We turn to walk along the bottom of the ravine as it slopes gently up to meet the level of the road several hundred yards away.

The ravine is the bed of a one-time railroad right of way. The land was bulldozed, scraped and formed out of the virgin prairie into the proper shape and grade for a railroad. In fact, two railroad lines were constructed here, running parallel to each other with a ridge of land between them. One is still active, with several trains each day blowing that so familiar “hooo hooo hoo hooo” announcement at each crossing. Mile-long trains carry all kinds of freight destined for places far from Owl Acres. If I’m in the right place, I hear the horn blasts echoing off the creek bank to the east.

The ravine we are walking in once held the tracks of the Newton and Northwestern Railroad. It was constructed and put into operation during 1905 and 1906. It was one of many smaller railroad companies and lines which crisscrossed the area beginning in 1867. The Newton and Northwestern was built to connect Newton with Rockwell City, some 94 miles to the northwest. While its sister track in the next ravine over continues today as part of the Iowa Interstate Railroad, all that is left of the Newton and Northwestern dream is the terraforming required to keep the grade at an easy 3%.

A three-percent grade allows heavy freight trains to climb the hills of the rolling prairie. It also makes a fabulous bike trail with no steep climbs or steep descents.

In order to get this gentle grade, a lot of terra-forming had to be done, smoothing out little hills, building up embankments to cross valleys, and lopping off high spots. In the case of the railroad right of way near Owl Acres, it meant digging ravines some 15 to 20 feet deep to maintain the proper grade. Most of this work at the time of the Newton and Northwestern Railroad was done by hand. Men with picks, shovels, mules and carts worked to sculpt the land to suit the railroad. The land near Owl Acres was prairie with very few rocks, so blasting would have been minimal, but it would have been back-breaking labor all the same. The trains on the Newton and Northwestern were habitually late, so the locals named it the “Hind Windy.” Like so many small railroad companies, the Newton and Northwestern had a short life. By 1911 it was in bankruptcy.

The Iowa Interstate Railroad is still entertaining me, though, with its whistles blowing for crossings through the neighborhood throughout the day. It’s far enough away to be pleasant. It’s an important part of the soundscape of Owl Acres, and it reminds me there’s a big world out there.

Photo by Author. Alt text: The long-forgotten ravine that once held the Newton and Northwestern Railroad