The SPSR traces its origins back to May 24, 1888, when the
Arizona and South Eastern Railroad (A&SE) was incorporated with headquarters at Bisbee, Arizona. Bisbee was a booming mining town that by the
1890 census was the sixth largest city in Arizona. In 1888 Arizona & Southeastern built a line southward along the
San Pedro River from a connection with the
Southern Pacific Railroad at Benson to Bisbee. The A&SE track partially paralleled the
New Mexico and Arizona Railroad (NM&A) that was built six years earlier (1882) on the opposite side of the San Pedro River from Benson to
Fairbank. The NM&A then went southwest to
Nogales via
Sonoita and
Patagonia. On June 17, 1902, the Arizona & Southeastern was sold to the
El Paso and Southwestern Railroad (EP&SW) and the line was extended through Douglas to
El Paso. On November 1, 1924, the EP&SW was leased to the Southern Pacific. In 1955, the EP&SW was merged into the SP. At that time, four of SP's five daily passenger trains used the route via Douglas with only one via Bowie; but by 1966, the line east of Douglas into New Mexico was abandoned. The section between Paul Spur and Douglas was abandoned in the 1990s. On June 15, 1992, SP sold the line to
Kyle Railways and operations commenced as the San Pedro & Southwestern Railway (SWKR). For several years starting in 1995, the SWKR ran an excursion train from Benson to Charleston. In 1997, the track was abandoned beyond Curtiss. On January 22, 1997, the SWKR was acquired by StatesRail but continued to operate as the SWKR. On January 7, 2002, the SWKR was acquired by RailAmerica. The San Pedro Railroad Operating Company (SPROC) commenced operations in November 2003 when it purchased the San Pedro & Southwestern
Railway (SWKR) from RailAmerica. The SPROC later filed for abandonment of the southern portion of the line. The STB approved abandonment of the entire line by SPROC on February 6, 2006. SAI made an offer of financial assistance to the STB, and was granted the option of ownership of the line on May 3, 2006. The STB ruled that the Offer of Financial Assistance (OFA) deal of the agreed upon price of $5.6 million for the SPROC railroad line from Curtiss to Naco and Paul Spur must close on or before July 12, 2006. On July 12, 2006, the attorneys for the Sonora–Arizona International LLC re-filed with the STB that they were withdrawing their OFA and that the SAI would no longer be purchasing the railroad line. The San Pedro Railroad Operating Company then refiled on July 13 to ask for approval to immediately abandon the line. Removal of the rails, ties and related infrastructure began in early 2007 south of Curtiss, to Paul Spur. In October 2018, the line was sold by ARG Transportation Services to Ironhorse Resources and renamed the San Pedro Valley Railroad. ==References==