A Sixteen-Mile Railroad Kept Henderson on the Map

The International and Great Northern reached Overton rather than Henderson, so Henderson built a connection of its own. The Henderson and Overton Branch Railroad was chartered on April 29, 1874. Its route ran about sixteen miles east to Overton, where it met that line. The branch opened on May 7, 1877, giving Henderson a direct rail link for farm products and other freight.

Getting those sixteen miles finished was not simple. The original contractors completed nearly all the grading before a dispute halted the work. A new group took over. In return, it received $100,000 in Henderson municipal bonds, a state land grant, and title to the railroad's right-of-way and rolling stock. That unusual package says plenty about how badly a town could need a railroad in the 1870s.

The branch survived much longer than many short lines. Union Pacific announced plans to abandon it in 2008. Rusk County then formed a rural rail district to preserve the route, and a locomotive marked the line's return to local control at a Henderson ceremony in 2010.

You can pick up the story at the Rusk County Depot Museum, 514 N. High Street in Henderson. Its grounds include railroad cars and the 1901 Missouri Pacific depot. The depot and cars turn a short line on an old map into something you can still stand beside.