(Editor’s Note: In recognition of Jena’s Sesquicentennial – 150th anniversary – we are re-printing the following article which appeared in The Jena Times on June 4, 1936.) A good many towns throughout the United States owe their present growth to the coming of the railroad, but Jena is one of the few towns that really owes its very existence to the Louisiana & Arkansas Railroad. By that we mean the town that is now called Jena.