Pine Buff

Railroad Town

Pine Bluff was first established on a high bank of the Arkansas River which appeared to be a bluff because it was heavily forested with tall pine trees. The high ground furnished a safe haven for settlers from the annual floods of the stream. Joseph Bonne, who was half French and half Quapaw Indian, is said to have settled on this bluff in 1819. After the Quapaws signed a treaty in 1824, relinquishing their title to all of the lands they claimed in Arkansas, other settlers began to join Bonne on the bluff. Thomas Phillips claimed a half section of land where Pine Bluff is located in 1829. Jefferson County was established by the Territorial Legislature, November 2, 1829 and began functioning as a county April 19, 1830. At the August 13, 1832 county election, the pine bluff was chosen as the county seat. The Quorum Court voted to name the village "Pine Bluff Town" on October 16, 1832. Pine Bluff was first incorporated January 8, 1839, by the order of County Judge Taylor. At the time, the village had about 50 residents. Improved transportation facilities aided in the growth of Pine Bluff during the 1840s and 1850s. More and better steamboats improved river traffic.

The St. Louis Southwestern Railroad acquired Northerns at three different times. It bought 10 Class L-1 Northerns in 1930 from the Baldwin Locomotive Works and assigned them road numbers 800 through 809. These 4-8-4s were oil burners with 70" drivers, 26 x 30 cylinders, a boiler pressure of 250 psi, a weight of 419,800 lbs and a tractive effort of 61,564 pounds.

In 1937, StL-SW's Pine Bluff, AR shops built five (road numbers 810 through 814) additional Class L-1s which were identical to the 10 from Baldwin. Then, in 1943, another five (road numbers 815 through 819) came out of the Pine Bluff shops which were very similar to the other Class L-1s except they weighed about 6,000 pounds more.

There is one surviving Class L-1, number 819, at the Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff, AR.