The south towns tried passing speed laws, limiting trains to 4 mph, but the crews deliberately ignored them. When representatives from Pond Creek and Enid tried to reason with Rock Island officials during a face-to-face meeting at divisional headquarters in Herington, Kan., they got nowhere. “No depots,” said the railroad. “You got depots north of you three miles. That’s what you’ll use. We’re not spending any money to build new depots at your new townsites.”

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For the south towns, the time for talking was over. During the early spring of 1894, it was not unusual for Rock Island trains to be peppered with bullets and buckshot as they steamed through Enid and Pond Creek. Passengers became so accustomed to the sound of lead hitting the cars that they would lie on the floor when trains entered town. On southbound trains approaching Pond Creek, porters began calling out to passengers that it was “Forty miles through hell to Hennessey,” which was the first town south of the Cherokee Outlet.

The gunfire only made the trainmen run faster, charging through the south towns with throttles wide open. The locals even placed dynamite caps on the rails and waved red flags and lanterns at the engineers, but the trains sped on.

On the night of April 9, 1894, a gang of would-be bandits tried to capitalize on the hard feelings between townspeople and the railroad by holding up the Rock Island’s southbound express. Two of the robbers, later identified as Bob Hughes and Jim Bourland, secretly boarded the tender during the train’s regular stop at the Pond Creek Station depot. Once the train pulled out and picked up speed to cross the Salt Fork River on its usual dash through Pond Creek, the pair climbed into the cab brandishing pistols. They ordered the engineer to stop at the first crossing south of Pond Creek, where their cohorts waited. There, the inept robbers tried to blow open the express car with dynamite, but the blast jammed one of the doors. Only after they threatened to kill the fireman and engineer did the express messenger finally open the doors to let them in.

The robbers then struggled with the through safe, which required a special key to open. Their futile efforts allowed time for Rock Island Railway detective Bill Fossett, who happened to be riding the train that night, and express guard Jake Harmon to work their way to the rear passenger car, where they began shooting at the gang. Outlaw Bob Hughes fell dead along the tracks in the first volley. The armed resistance by Fossett and Harmon was enough to send the remaining bandits running for their horses. Even some Pond Creek residents, certainly no fans of the railroad, rushed to the scene to help drive them off in the waning moments of the gunfight. Within days the suspects were rounded up and jailed, two at Wichita, the others at Pond Creek, but nothing changed between the railroad and the south towns.

A few weeks later, Enid city police officers seized a rare opportunity when the caboose of a passing southbound freight became uncoupled. The city marshal and some deputies charged it and swarmed inside as it glided to a stop, setting off a brawl with the trapped trainmen. The Enid men wanted the conductor but couldn’t pry him loose from his grip on a ladder. The fireman and several brakemen soon joined the melee as the rest of the train backed up to reattach the caboose. When the train started forward again, the officers jumped off and settled for arresting the fireman, who had been pinned to the ground. They hauled their prisoner before the city judge, who fined him $100 and sentenced him to 30 days in jail for violating Enid’s speed limit.

June 1894 was an especially eventful month at Pond Creek. On the night of the 3rd, several inmates, including three suspected train robbers, managed to gouge a hole in the jailhouse wall and leave town on stolen horses. The successful jailbreak, however, didn’t rank with the seriousness of speeding trains. On the morning of June 5, more than 100 deputized Pond Creek men lined the tracks crossing the main street, intent on arresting a freight train crew for speeding through town. They could only wave red flags at it as it rolled through town. Pond Creek’s Cherokee Sentinel later lamented, “It took the train 47 se­conds to cross the city limits.”

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