In 1871, the tracks of the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad, which followed the Elkhorn upstream from Fremont, reached Wisner; the line reached Norfolk in 1879.Pangle, Mary Ellen. A History of Norfolk. Published serially in Norfolk Daily News. 1929 As the railway was extended, water stops were needed at intervals to support the steam locomotives."History of Allen", a brochure about Allen, TexasFor example, a section of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad running in the Mojave Desert between Ludlow and Amboy had water stops spaced by 5-10 miles: Lavic, Ragtown, Ash Hill, Klondike, Siberia, Bagdad, see Google Maps, all eight of them being ghost towns now. The railroad stops were also served by telegraphs for the purpose of administering and controlling the railroad as well as business development of the telegraphs.Thompson, Jim. The Railroad Telegrapher, Vol. VII, No. 2, Fall 1993 / Winter 1994. Retrieved from http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/periodicals/ozarkswatch/ow702h.htm on 31 July 2010 The telegraph station at the water stop located at the site of present-day Beemer was named after the nearest significant settlement, Rock Creek, and used the call letters "R C". So, for the next fifteen years, two locations, several miles apart and on opposite sides of the Elkhorn, were referred to as 'Rock Creek': one was the area around the Rock Creek stream near Lambrecht's mill and the other the area around the railway water stop and telegraph station.
