- The St. Paul Branch and the Pettigrew Branch entries redirect here.
The Fayetteville & Little Rock Railway line ran from Fayette Junction in south Fayetteville east across the Fayetteville, loosely following Town Branch, crossing the West Fork of the White River near the present-day Boric Drive, which Combs Park and up the valley of the East (Main) Fork of the White River into Madison County.
It was better known as the St. Paul Branch because St. Paul (Madison County) was the primary terminus, but also occasionally labeled as the Pettigrew Branch on a few maps because the line eventually extended as far as Pettigrew, Madison County.
The rail line was primarily used for hauling timber from the middle of the Boston Mountains back to Fayetteville for a variety of uses, including housing, furniture, wagon-making, barrell staves and railroad ties.
The state granted a charter to the Little Rock & Fayetteville on Sept. 4, 1886, just five years after the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway had built into Fayetteville. Two months later, a switch was installed on the main line of the Frisco so that construction of a feeder line up the valley of the White River could be built. The spot of the switch quickly became known as Fayette Junction.
The rail line also helped many of the communities along it come into existence, thrive and eventually decline after the shipment of timber slowed. Residents all along the line could catch a train into Fayetteville for shopping, visiting friends or sight-seeing and then return the same way.
The western segment of the line within the Fayetteville city limits remained in use through the mid-1990s between Fayette Junction and the Fayetteville Industrial Park. A spur known as the Black Mountain & Eastern ran south over the Boston Mountains from Durham to Cass in the valley of Mulberry Creek.
Minor pieces of the old route still exist in Fayetteville, including a trestle bridge over Cato Springs Creek, bridge abutments where the line crossed the West Fork of the White River and about a mile of bicycle trail along the old railroad bed between
