Scholten Railroad

The cedar line came at the end of a boom Lometa owed to another railroad. In 1910 the Santa Fe began a branch from Lometa to Eden and made the town its construction headquarters. The four years of building more than doubled the population, real estate prices soared and business boomed. Lometa grew into a shipping point for cotton, wool, grains, pecans, mohair, cattle and cedar posts. The Handbook of Texas dates the cedar road, which it spells Scholton, from 1913 to 1920.

What the plaque says

Scholten Railroad (Owned by the "Scholten Brothers Cedar Company") A 25-mile narrow-gauge railroad that operated about 1912-1920 from Lometa to San Saba County. Constructed by Edward and Alfred Scholten (from Holland), line hauled cedar posts and piling to Santa Fe Line at Lometa to be distributed to fast-growing West Texas. Employees totaled 500. Headquarters were located 100 yards west. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Bend State Park — 13 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.
• Hancock Springs Park — 16 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.

More markers nearby

• Operation Long Horn — 0.5 mi
• Lometa — 0.6 mi
• Phantom Hill Road — 2.4 mi
• Site of Lometa Reservoir — 2.4 mi