Mewshaw State Sawmill and Maydell CCC Camp

Camp Wright, a branch of the Rusk Penitentiary, was set up near what is now Maydelle in 1906, and convicts built the Mewshaw sawmill there in 1908. Named for Captain J. T. Mewshaw, a penitentiary supervisor, it supplied the prison's iron foundry with charcoal and made railroad ties. A fire destroyed the mill in 1912, and it was not rebuilt. In 1933 a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, Company 883, took over the site. By 1936 its crews had built 132 miles of forest road, 162 bridges and 45 miles of telephone line.

What the plaque says

Mewshaw State Sawmill and Maydell CCC Camp In operation from 1908 to 1912, the Mewshaw State Sawmill at this site produced 35,000 board feet of lumber daily and was staffed by convict laborers form the nearby Rusk State Penitentiary. The village of Maydelle later developed on the rail line that ran between Rusk and Palestine, and in 1933 a forest conservation camp under the auspices of the Federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established here. The camp was closed in 1937, but the benefits of its programs are still evident in the I. D. Fairchild State Forest, now a wildlife sanctuary.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 12 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.
• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 18 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Maydelle — 3.9 mi
• Gent Village — 4.8 mi
• Fields Chapel Methodist Church and Cemetery — 5.3 mi
• Dialville — 9.5 mi