The Fairchild and North-Eastern Railway was a common-carrier railroad organized in 1897, the successor road of several earlier logging lines of the N.C. Foster Lumber Company of Fairchild, Wisconsin

Fairchild, Wisconsin

Fairchild is a village in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 564 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Fairchild.-Geography:Fairchild is located at ....

. It connected Fairchild

Fairchild, Wisconsin

Fairchild is a village in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 564 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Fairchild.-Geography:Fairchild is located at ....

 with Foster

Foster, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin

Foster is an unincorporated community in the town of Clear Creek in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, United States. It lies approximately 9 miles south-southwest of Fall Creek, 7 miles southeast of Cleghorn, and 6 miles northwest of Osseo. Located primarily along Eau Claire County Highway "HH", it is...

, via Hay Creek

Hay Creek, Wisconsin

Hay Creek is an unincorporated community located in the town of Bridge Creek, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, United States....

, in southern Eau Claire County

Eau Claire County, Wisconsin

Eau Claire County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2010, the population estimate was 98,736. Its county seat is Eau Claire....

. In 1913, the railroad was extended beyond Foster, via Allen

Allen, Wisconsin

Allen is an unincorporated community in the town of Clear Creek in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, United States. It lies almost exactly midway between Cleghorn and Foster, at the southern junction of Eau Claire County Highways "D" and "V"....

 as far as Cleghorn

Cleghorn, Wisconsin

Cleghorn is an unincorporated community in the east central part of the town of Pleasant Valley in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, United States, about six miles south of Eau Claire. Cleghorn is located one mile east of Wis. 93 along Eau Claire County Highway "HH", at the junction of "HH", "I", and "V"...

. To the east, it reached as far as Owen

Owen, Wisconsin

Owen is a city in Clark County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 936 at the 2000 census, but was 982 as of 2008. Owen is located directly east of the village of Withee, which is about half the size of Owen.-Geography:...

 (where, as of 2006, the depot still stands and a short stub of trackage remains), via Willard

Willard, Wisconsin

Willard is a town in Rusk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 539 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 36.2 square miles , of which, 35.6 square miles of it is land and 0.6 square miles of it is...

 and Greenwood

Greenwood, Wisconsin

Greenwood is a city in Clark County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,079 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Greenwood is located at ....

. The railroad went defunct as a result of the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

-induced change from grain farming

Cereal

Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...

 to dairy farming

Dairy farming

Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...

 as the mainstay of Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

's agricultural

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 base. A very small portion of this line was in use through the 1970s in Greenwood

Greenwood, Wisconsin

Greenwood is a city in Clark County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,079 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Greenwood is located at ....

, where it connected with the (now abandoned) Greenwood branch of the Soo Line

Soo Line Railroad

The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , controlled through the Soo Line Corporation, and one of seven U.S. Class I railroads. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste...

.