Texas State Railroad

The line's public life began in 1907, when Governor Thomas M. Campbell's plan to run it as a common carrier won legislative approval on April 5 and regular service started June 6. The extension to Palestine opened April 15, 1909, at a cost of about $530,383. Reformers complained of deaths among the convicts who built the track. In 1916 freight earned $24,024 and passengers $3,656. The state leased the line to the Texas and New Orleans in 1921 after a deficit of $366,902. Steam passenger service restarted as a state park on July 4, 1976.

What the plaque says

Texas State Railroad In the late 1880s the Texas Prison System built a short rail line from the state penitentiary facility in north Rusk southward to hardwood timber stands, where charcoal was made for use in firing the prison's iron ore smelting furnaces. The line served as the foundation of the Texas State Railroad, which was organized in 1894 in an effort to make the prison more self-sufficient by providing new markets for prison products. Two Texas governors, James Stephen Hogg and Thomas M. Campbell, both natives of Cherokee County, were instrumental in the railroad's development. Built by prisoners and supervised by the state prison system, the line was completed in 1909 to Palestine (30 mi. w), where it connected with existing routes. Setbacks, including the closing of the furnaces and the prison unit, limited the railroad's success; however, under a board of managers appointed by the Legislature, the line was later leased to the Texas & New Orleans Railroad and the Texas & Southeastern Railroad. In 1972 control was transferred to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission for development as a state park. It now symbolizes the significant role the railroad industry played in Texas history. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 14 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.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 23 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.

More markers nearby

• Site of Rusk Public School No. 2 for African Americans — 2.1 mi
• Rusk — 2.3 mi
• Site of Sam Houston Speeches — 2.4 mi
• The Rusk Cherokeean — 2.6 mi