Cane Belt Railroad
 

The Cane Belt Railroad

Taken from "The Railroads of Matagorda County" by Guy Claybourn, Historic Matagorda County, Volume I

The Cane Belt Railroad Company, eventually to become the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, was chartered on March 4, 1898, and was built south from Eagle Lake. The charter was amended to call for an extension to the tidewater of the Gulf of Mexico via Bay City, Matagorda County's new county seat. It was generally thought that the Cane Belt had Freeport, at the mouth of the Brazos River, as its objective. To forestall such an extension, it was said that the New York, Texas & Mexican Railway (eventually to become the Southern Pacific) built the Hawkinsville Branch beginning at Van Vleck. The line was known as the "Hawkinsville Tap."
 

In order to obtain the Cane Belt service, it was necessary for Bay City to put up a bonus. The Townsite Company deeded a number of unsold lots to the railroad builders. A. H. Pierce put up $5000 as a further bonus, for which he also was given some lots. Under the terms of the bonus, July 1, 1901 was the date set for the operation of the passenger train into Bay City. Late in the day of June 30, 1901, track-laying crews--consisting of some three to four hundred convicts from the State Prison Farm--reached the outskirts of the town. Immediately the construction train's engine backed up to Lane City, picked up a couple of coaches, and returned to Bay City that night with the first passenger train, thus complying with the terms of the bonus.

The Cane Belt Railroad, as it was called (now Santa Fe) came into Matagorda in December, 1901.  George B. Culver worked hard to have the line extended into Matagorda to the "turn around" or end of the line. He gave the land for the depot and tracks. This old iron horse "the Try Daily" was the only "religious" train anywhere around. It ran six days a week--between Sealy and Matagorda--but rested on the seventh day.

For years the "Cane Belt" ran a "Saturday Special" for those all along the line to come to Matagorda to enjoy the cool Gulf breeze and dance until midnight at the old pavilion. These young people (with their mothers as chaperones) came with large trunks filled with beautiful dance dresses and stayed at the old Matagorda Hotel on the Bay. Some would leave on Monday but most stayed over the several weeks to enjoy those fabulous Saturday night dances at the pavilion.
 

By reaching Matagorda, the Cane Belt fulfilled the term of the charter for a tidewater terminus between the mouths of the Brazos and Colorado rivers.  In 1919 one of the world's largest deposits of sulphur was discovered at Gulf Hill, six miles east of Matagorda. The sulphur industry furnished a tremendous amount of traffic for the Cane Belt rail line until the late 1920s. In 1948 the Cane Belt line became the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF), itself under the control of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Tracks from this line continue to serve two chemical plants as well as the South Texas Nuclear Project.
 

Copyright 2006 - Present by Carol Sue Gibbs
All rights reserved

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