Everything changed for West, a small farming settlement, when the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad came through town in 1881.
Whereas towns that grow up around courthouses seem to radiate from the center, towns built along railroads have a different shape—more linear, sometimes physically following the tracks. For this reason, West is unique even among railroad towns: the track is the central experience of the town, with development along both sides.
This is no accident. Railroad barons designing their routes used their influence to exploit every advantage—pitting towns against one another and profiting from the development of the land they owned along the track. It was just that valuable to have the railroad come through town. In some cases, it was a matter of survival.
