The west may have been won on the back of a horse, but it grew upon streetcar lines. Or at least some would argue such. When it came to civilizing the west, the streetcar played an important role, as it allowed towns to expand by making them more interconnected. It also gave them the appearance of one of the “civilized” cities in the east.
As the cities of the Black Hills attempted to move away from their wild west days, into a new era, many attempted to create their own lines, and a few would eventually succeed. Nearly all would eventually succumb to the sands of history, and become forgotten.
Rapid City and Years of Trouble
The first streetcar line established in the Black Hills was in Rapid City. It would establish the city as one of the major players in Dakota territory, being the second city to build such a line. Rapid City’s streetcar line would be a point of pride, at least it would seem so when it came to outsiders.
The line would be constructed on Main Street and was powered by horses. It would open in the fall of 1886, and attempts to have it expand were almost immediate.
However, it wouldn’t impress many. Tom Harvey, in the Omaha Republican, would state: “There is a street car line, if one bob-tailed car can constitute a line.” To put it simply, Harvey, who was a pioneer in the Black Hills, wasn’t impressed.
What made the streetcar line even less impressive to Harvey was probably the manner in which Rapid City had been boasting about themselves. Wanting to make their city appear larger than it was, the city would tout their accomplishments as something one wouldn’t generally see in a town of their size.
In retrospect, while the streetcar line was something the city could brag about having, it was largely a financial disaster. Having been established when the Freemont, Elkhart and Missouri Valley railroad established a depot in town, the line would really only be busy when the train arrived in the morning, or departed at night.
Most of the day, it would be parked in front of Patton Hotel. Even when it would be busy, the 5 cent fee would hardly cover the costs of the venture on a good day. It would survive largely because E.B. Chapman, the owner, paid to keep the business afloat out of his own pocket.
Four years later, additional troubles would arrive. As the streetcar line attempted to expand, they ran up against a competitor, who had been given a franchise for the electric motor line. In May of 1890, the two would nearly start a riot, as both attempted to capture Tenth Street in order to lay track.
Police, armed with pistols, would have to step in to prevent violence, while threatening violence themselves. The electric motor line would eventually be victorious, laying their own track and promising bloodshed if it was tampered with.
It would be the death of horse drawn streetcar line. The Upper Rapid City Company, which was composed of capitalists from Rapid City, Kentucky, and Chicago, had began work to expand their interests. Part of that had been to secure a franchise in order to build their electric motor line from the Elkhorn passenger station, which was in the east part of the city, over to their western corporation line.
The move would be successful for them, and for Rapid City, it gave them even more acclaim, as eastern reporters would write in amazement that in the east, it would take a much larger city to even begin operating an electric motor line.
A major boom to the endeavor would occur in 1894, when the Elkhorn Railroad company entered into a contract with the line that enforced patronage to the motor line.
Even with all of the added revenue, it would still prove to be too little. Mechanical issues would plague the streetcars, often making them unreliable. While changes would continue to be made through the years, in order to try to make the streetcar line viable, it would eventually fold in 1903.
It would prove to be a slow death though for streetcar lines in Rapid City. In 1906, the idea was revived, when Dr. F. M. Kearns, of Wheeling West Virginia, made a bid for a new franchise in the town. The goal was to have an automobile line set up within 4 months, and eventually have it replaced with an electric streetcar line.
Nothing would materialize though, and two years later, in 1908, yet another attempt was made to again establish a streetcar line. A franchise would once more be granted, but as with previous attempts, it simply fizzled out.