The story
The Apache Railway was incorporated in 1917, when it began construction of a rail line from Holbrook south, reaching Snowflake in 1918. It was extended south to McNary in 1920. The tracks eventually extended further south to Maverick in 1944.
From October 1, 1931, until 1936, amid the Great Depression, the APA was placed in receivership.
A tourist railroad, the White Mountain Scenic Railroad, operated steam powered passenger excursions over the Southwest Forest Industries-owned line from McNary to the logging camp at Maverick, beginning in 1964. As track conditions deteriorated, the excursions were cut back in later years to a point about halfway to Maverick. In the final years, it operated north from Pinetop Lakes to a place called Bell Siding on U.S. Route 60. In 1976, the White Mountain Scenic Railroad ceased operations and moved its equipment to Heber City, Utah to be used on an excursion there known as the "Heber Creeper." The line from Maverick to McNary, with some elevations exceeding 9,000 ft (2,700 m), was removed in 1982 after the McNary sawmill closed. A section of the line was later converted to a rail trail, the Railroad Grade Trail. Another section is part of the Indian Springs Trail.
By the 1980s, the Apache Railway was Arizona's only remaining logging railroad. The track from Snowflake to McNary was abandoned in 1982.
In July 2012, the owner of the railroad and an on-line paper mill, Catalyst Paper, announced that the mill and railroad would shut down and be sold later in the year. In December, Catalyst agreed to sell the railroad and mill to Hackman Capital. Hackman planned to dismantle the railroad along with the mill, but local officials who wanted to retain rail service formed a non-profit foundation to purchase the railroad from lenders, using a federal Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing loan, which was denied in November 2014. Hackman took over control again and put the railroad into bankruptcy in May 2015, while local officials attempted to secure a rural economic development loan from the United States Department of Agriculture. A bankruptcy court ruled on September 1, 2015, to postpone the sale deadline of the railroad, which the court valued at $7.2 million, until November 30.
After several dispositive hearings before the bankruptcy court, the Aztec Land & Cattle Company agreed to pay Hackman the amount due. In 2015, the Apache Railway's stock was passed to a holding company that is owned and controlled by both Aztec and Midwest Poultry.
From Wikipedia’s article on Apache Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3