Lucian C. Sprague (1882–1960) was an American

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

executive. Sprague was born in Serena, Illinois, on September 29, 1882, and during his early years held a variety of railroad jobs, including stints at the

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...

, Great Northern, and

Baltimore and Ohio The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

. In 1922, he was hired by the

Uintah Railway The Uintah Railway was a small narrow gauge railroad company in Utah and Colorado in the United States. It was constructed to carry Gilsonite which provided most of its operating revenues; but it operated as a common carrier from 1904 to 1939, al ...

, a remarkable and remote

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller struc ...

short line in the mountains along the

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

border. Sprague remained at the Uintah for most of the decade, becoming the line's general manager. In 1935, Sprague was appointed co-receiver of the bankrupt

Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&StL) was an American Class I railroad that built and operated lines radiating south and west from Minneapolis, Minnesota for 90 years from 1870 to 1960. The railway never reached St. Louis (despite its ...

(M&StL), a mid-sized railroad that extended south and west from

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...

. The M&StL had struggled financially for years, and by the 1930s was threatened with liquidation; Sprague, however, managed to turn the company around, and the railroad's twenty-year receivership ended in 1943. Sprague was named president of the M&StL at the end of receivership, and he held that position until being ousted in a dramatic 1954 shareholders battle orchestrated by Benjamin W. Heineman. Sprague died of a heart attack in

on August 3, 1960.

References

*Bender, Henry E. ''Uintah Railway: The Gilsonite Route''. Revised edition. Forest Park, Illinois: Heimburger House Publishing Co., 1995. . *Hofsommer, Don L. ''The Tootin' Louie: A History of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sprague, Lucian 1882 births 1960 deaths 20th-century American railroad executives