Tyler Tap Railroad

Cost shaped the line. The company chose three-foot narrow gauge to save money, and the land grant was cut from sixteen sections per mile to twelve. The Houston and Great Northern had already reached Tyler, so the Tap was not the town's first railroad. St. Louis investors led by James W. Paramore joined it expecting lower cotton rates. Narrow-gauge track opened from Texarkana to Big Sandy in July 1880, from Tyler to Athens by year's end and on to Corsicana in April 1881. A foreclosure sale in February 1886 began the Cotton Belt, the Handbook of Texas says.

What the plaque says

Tyler Tap Railroad To provide for shipment of locally-grown fruits, vegetables, and cotton to distant markets, a group of Tyler citizens proposed a railroad to connect the town with major rail lines nearby. The promoters included R. B. Hubbard, later governor of Texas; James P. Douglas, onetime state senator; W. S. Herndon, A. M. Ferguson, and J. H. Brown. In 1871 the State Legislature accepted their proposal and chartered the Tyler Tap Railroad to join with the Texas & Pacific Railroad or the International & Great Northern Railroad within 40 miles of Tyler. Local organizers decided to link with the Texas & Pacific at Big Sandy. Actual construction was delayed until 1875, with the first train running Oct. 1, 1877. Funds for the tap line were to be secured by sale of stock, but when private financing failed to raise enough money, the Legislature agreed to award state land for each mile of track completed. Although organized and promoted by local citizens, the Tyler Tap line soon attracted other investors. In 1879, under a new charter, it was renamed the Texas & St. Louis Railway, with headquarters in Tyler. It was reorganized again in 1891 as the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, commonly known as the Cotton Belt, with general offices still located here. (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — steps away
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 1.5 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 3.3 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Tyler State Park — 8.9 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• Henry Miller Morgan — 0.3 mi
• Smith County, C. S. A. — 0.3 mi
• City of Tyler — 0.3 mi
• First County Agricultural Extension Agent — 0.3 mi