Wichita Valley Rail Trail - Wichita Falls, TX
N 33° 51.430 W 098° 35.829
14S E 537264 N 3746392
An interpretive sign near the eastern terminus of the Wichita Valley Rail Trail provides some background as to the railroad that once operated here, and how it became this trail in the 1990s.
Waymark Code: WM16A88
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 06/12/2022
Views: 1
At each end of the trail and in between are interpretive signs, each with a trail map and a "You Are Here" to help you monitor your progress. These "Wichita Valley Rail Trail" signs feature a steaming locomotive and "A property of the North Texas Rural Rail Transportation District". They provide insets, including a few locomotives, along with pertinent text:
In 1890 Colonel Morgan Jones chartered a railway known as the Wichita Valley Railway Company and constructed a line from Wichita Falls to Seymour. By 1891 the company owned two locomotives and four cars. Earnings that year included $13,483 from passenger revenue and $44,955 from freight revenue. One source states that it cost 15¢ to ride from Holliday to Wichita Falls.
[passes used by their high-level employees] The Wichita Valley Railroad became part of a larger railroad, first the Colorado and Southern Railroad, then the Fort Worth and Denver City and finally the Burlington Northern.
[Legend showing mile markers, parking areas, trail bridges, and fitness stations]
In the late 1990s Burlington Northern sold the railway to a materials company who wasted no time tearing it up and selling it for scrap. This six mile trail is what's left of "the lifeline from frontier to civilization when Northwest Texas was being settled".
Group that erected the marker: North Texas Rural Rail Transportation District
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
Stansbury Ln (cul-de-sac)
Wichita Falls, TX USA
76310
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