Railroads in Rockdale

The mine at what became Sandow was renamed in 1922 by the McAlester Fuel Company, after a famous strongman Florenz Ziegfeld was promoting, to help sell its lignite. The Rockdale, Sandow and Southern was chartered the next year and took over an industrial line the Federal Fuel Company had built in 1919. In the early 1950s it was upgraded, about three miles of track moved to serve Alcoa's new plant, and the first carload of aluminum shipped in November 1952. Since 1954 the bell from locomotive number 3 has been the Victory Bell for the Rockdale-Cameron football game.

What the plaque says

Railroads in Rockdale Rockdale owes its founding to the International & Great Northern rail line, along which the town was laid out in 1873-74. The railroad gave area farmers access to markets for their crops, and Rockdale became a shipping point for farmers and other local businesses. The San Antonio & Aransas Pass (later Southern Pacific) Railroad operated a north-south route through Rockdale from 1891 to 1959, further contributing to economic growth. The Rockdale, Sandow and Southern Railroad, chartered in 1923 to carry lignite coal to area customers, became Rockdale's third rail line. Although the last passenger train left Rockdale in 1970, the railroad remains a significant part of the community's heritage. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 14 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• Calvert — 30 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.

More markers nearby

• Site of Mundine Hotel — steps away
• City of Rockdale — steps away
• George Sessions Perry — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Rockdale — steps away