Arkalon And The Samson Of The Cimarron
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 37° 09.005 W 100° 44.967
14S E 344640 N 4112954
Another ghost town because the railroad went somewhere else.
Waymark Code: WMAB98
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 12/18/2010
Views: 11
Marker Erected by:Kansas Historical Society and State Highway Commission
County of Marker: Seward County
Location of Marker: US-54, rest area, 4 miles SW of Kismet
Marker Text:
Many Kansas towns originated as potential railroad centers. Three miles west of this marker Arkalon was founded in 1888 at the Cimarron river crossing of the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska railway, a part of the Rock Island. Town lots were cheap, and people flocked in by the hundreds. However, the deep sand of the area was a serious handicap to the movement of horse drawn freight, and the town never succeeded in establishing itself as a profitable marketing point. It was sustained for some years by its large stockyards but by the 1920s most of the population had gone.
The railroad, slowed by a hairpin curve and plagued by flooding on the Cimarron which brought severe damage to equipment and freight, diverted several miles of track from the town to utilize the bridge it erected here in 1939. Called the Samson of the Cimarron, the bridge is 1,269 feet long and was considered an engineering marvel of its day. It helped speed the commerce of the Southwest to its destination and Arkalon to oblivion.
Thirteen miles southwest is Liberal, established on the railroad in 1888, Seward county seat since 1892.