Verde Canyon Railroad

The Verde Canyon Railroad  wilderness train is a heritage railroad near Clarkdale, Arizona.  Opened in 1912 as the Verde Valley Railway, it was built to support the copper mines at Jerome, Arizona. The Santa Fe Railway operated and owned the 38-mile branch line from 1912 to 1989, providing coal to the Phoenix Cement Company, and shipping copper and cement outbound.  Current excursions are a 4-hour, 40-mile round trip from Clarkdale to the ghost ranch of Perkinsville and back. Scenes from How the West Was Won were filmed at Perkinsville in 1961. The route, nestled between two national forests and adjacent to a designated wilderness area, follows the Verde River the entire way and features a 680-foot-long curved tunnel and many bridges. The route is on the south of the Verde River through Prescott National Forest land; the Coconino National Forest lies northeast across the river.