The UV&P was known as the "Crookedest Railroad In America." That didn't imply it was run by crooks. Nope, it has something like 180 curves, some of which were 40-degree curves and one was a 45-degree curve. This narrow gage engineering marvel stretched 25.8 miles between what's now Chino Valley and Jerome.
The curves on the UV&P were so tight people joked the conductor at the rear of the train could reach out and shake hands with the engineer at the front of the train.
The UV&P was incorporated in the spring of 1894 and actually in operation by early 1895. The reason it was built so fast was because the famous William Andrews Clark was simply throwing gobs and gobs of money at it. Clark knew the railroad was the ticket to riches and history proved him correct.
The railroad eventually was closed down in May 1920 after what's now the Verde Canyon Railroad was built in 1912. The VCRR is mostly a tourist operation that has carried over a million passengers since 1990.
We have always been smitten with the UV&P. Way back during the Dawn of Mountain Bikes, we started a company called "Arizona Rough Riders," to take people on guided bicycle tours deep into the Arizona hinterlands. In order to sketch out the itineraries for these trips, we would gather together out Dear Friends and do a "test trip."
One of our finest such trips was the Seligman-Jerome Ride along two old railroads. I can't remember the name of the railroad that went from Seligman to Chino Valley but I'll never forget the ride from Chino to Jerome. I think it was in the Spring of 1984 but it might have been 1985.
As I recall there were at least six of us and maybe 8. We took 4-5 days riding that route. Wayne Ranney was along so maybe he will remember. That's when we fell in love with the UV&P. Later we became Friends with legendary local late railroad historian Russ Wahmann and he regaled us with, oh, so many tales of the UV&P.
One of the cool things that happened on that ride took place many miles out on the old rail bed from Jerome. We came on this really old couple hacking away at the trees and plants on the side of the hill. We stopped to ask them what they were doing. They said that when they grew up, there was no vegetation on the hillsides and they were trying to make it look like what they remembered as kids.
Well, of course, some of you know there was no vegetation because the smelter smoke killed and destroyed it all. Heck, the smoke actually killed ponderosa pine trees almost all the way to Williams "back in the day." But that's another story.
The road from Jerome to Chino Valley faithfully follows the old UV&P rail line and it's actually pretty much just the way it way back then.
We did find some stuff on the UV&P online and it is all shown below without captions.
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