Telegraph Road

The road went with the stage line. Montgomery sat on the stagecoach route from Huntsville to Houston, and before the Civil War this trail carried freight and the telegraph wire alike. The land around the marker is now Sam Houston National Forest. Texas authorized the federal purchases in 1933, and on October 15, 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed them, turning cut-over pineland back into forest. Logging had stripped these woodlands between 1880 and 1930, the West Fork marker says.

What the plaque says

Telegraph Road A pioneer trail connecting the towns of Montgomery, Houston, and Huntsville, in use as early as 1845, became an important transportation and freighting route for early settlers. After the Texas and Red River Telegraph Company was established in 1854, wires were strung along the historic trail to extend service to Montgomery and Houston. The route soon became known as the "Telegraph Road." Although the wires eventually were removed, portions of the old Telegraph Road remained visible for many years. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 17 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.
• Navasota — 24 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 29 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.

More markers nearby

• Montgomery County, C. S. A. — 5.6 mi
• Town of Montgomery — 5.6 mi
• Charles Bellinger Stewart — 5.6 mi
• Lake Creek Settlement — 5.8 mi