How A Railroad Fight Split Enid Into Two Oklahoma Towns

There’s a pretty good chance you’ve driven through Enid without ever giving much thought to why there’s an Enid and a North Enid. I know I never did.

Turns out, there’s a pretty interesting little lesser-known tidbit of Oklahoma history behind the two Enids on the map. And in the truest Oklahoma fashion, it involves a railroad, a land run, and a fight over where Enid was supposed to be. There was even a bit of railroad sabotage involved when they derailed the trains.

It all begins with the formation of Enid.

The Rock Island Railroad had already built its railway station in 1889, before the Cherokee Outlet opened to settlers. The station was originally called Skeleton Station, which apparently didn't impress the local railroad official at all. So he renamed it Enid, borrowing the name from a character from a book that was popular at the time.

This wasn't the Enid we're familiar with now, the OG Enid if you will, and as you'd expect, the government had a problem with where the railroad had established its Enid

Here's the problem... The newly established Enid Railway Station was too close to land that had been allotted to Cherokee citizens. And rather than deal with that legal mess, the government chose a new site about three miles south, and decided to name the new town Enid.

The people who settled there followed the government's rules. They had their townsite, their post office, and eventually a county seat. However, the railroad was upset because the government just cut off their newly built station from town life.

You think they were going to move the entire train line after spending so much to build it? You probably wouldn't either. So Rock Island kept running service at the original location, convinced people would eventually move there rather than the new townsite. But that didn't happen.

What Happened Next Became Known As The Enid Railroad War

And this wasn't one of those Oklahoma disputes where everybody stands around arguing until somebody gets mad and goes home. There was actual violence.

By the summer of 1894, the fight had gotten bad enough that the railroad was dealing with angry residents, legal battles, and a whole lot of hostility over its refusal to stop their trains at the government-designated town just three miles away.

On July 12th of that year, somebody took it upon themselves to make a huge statement.

They sawed through a railroad bridge south of Enid, and what they hoped would happen, happened.

A freight train came along that night, and while the engineer apparently realized something was wrong, most of the train went crashing through the bridge in an instant.

The engineer made it across with the locomotive and a few following cars, but there were oil tanks, wheat cars, lumber, and a car full of empty beer kegs scattered around the wreck. The caboose tipped over, and the local newspaper estimated the damage at around $50,000.

In the aftermath, there were a ton of suspected saboteurs. The local newspaper had a bit of fun with it too, pointing at several different possibilities. Random people from nearby towns, Enid's elite, even the Dalton Gang, but nobody was ever identified or charged with the crime.

Congress Forces The Railroad To Stop In Enid

The federal government eventually stepped in, and Congress passed legislation forcing the railroad to stop at the county seat. And that unknown history still shows up on maps today.

The original railroad town became North Enid.

The southern town became Enid, both of which still appear on maps today.