The Leisure Prairie Railroad, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Gready Mills, Inc.,
has deep roots going back to 1875, when it was a narrow gauge line serving the gold camps of the
Heartbreak Canyon in the panhandle of Idaho. How It became the thriving lumber railroad it is today
is a story of intrigue, cunning, and the downright backstabbing that has made this country great.
THE
GOLD
YEARS
In 1874, the 38-year old prospector, JoShia (pronounced gosh-i) M. Gready,
discovered gold in Heartbreak Canyon. He staked out the most promising claims, then carried out
enough nuggets to cover the cost of building a narrow gauge railroad from Lewshinn to the mining area.
Before he revealed and cashed the gold, JoShia established the Gready Mining
Company, Inc., promising a hefty percentage of the net profits of a claim to anyone who would file on
one of his choice claims, and assign the right to mine it to his mining company. The new claimants
each received a block of shares of the mining company's common stock; and most were convinced to
purchase blocks of preferred stock, which guaranteed a hefty $2 a year dividend, to provide startup
money for the operation.
Next, JoShia established a separate business entity: The Najidae,
Coruscate, & Cloaca as a common carrier railroad, sole proprietorship; and locked up the narrow
canyon as his road's right of way. Quickly cashing in the nuggets, and filing the claims on behalf
of his mining investors, he then hired Pinkerton Detectives to accompany his surveyors to the area to
insure no unauthorized persons would trespass on the new railroad's right of way and easily get to the
strike site and jump the claims before the railroad and mining company were ready to exploit them.
Gold fever sent would-be millionaires flocking to the canyon, taxing the
Detectives' energies until the hastily built railroad was ready. Once done, it thrived, carrying
all who would work the find in to the boom-town JoShia had named Cloaca, and the processed gold ore out
to reload bunkers at Najidae, where the NP would pick it up for the short journey to Arrakeen for final
processing at the Gready Mining Co. smelter there.
The NCC soon gained a reputation among the minors that resulted in the
nick-name, The Greedy Lines, which it lived up to with relish--JoShia M. Gready was truly greedy!
Not only did the miners, both independent and company employees, pay through the nose for
passenger service, but the profits of the Gready Mining Company and the choice claims it operated were
severely eaten away by the railroad's outlandish shipping fees.
The high profits from the NCC continued until 1881, when the gold finally
petered out. Beginning to loose money, the Gready family, which had become the richest family in
the Pacific Northwest, closed the railroad and turned its attention to other investments.
The Gready Mining Company and its investors were left in the lurch, upon the
sudden resignation of its President, JoShia M. Gready. The preferred stock dividends that had
built up unpaid since the start due to the lack of adequate profits from both the railroad's gouging and
a creative accounting system that the head bookkeeper would eventually copy after moving to California
to help found what would eventually become a major movie studio, ended up written off after a long
bankruptcy reorganization attempt failed.
Finding their access hampered by new, "No Trespassing" signs erected along the
right of way, and frequently hassled by the Pinkertons, the remaining stragglers in Cloaca were
soon vanquished
