After a brief hotel breakfast in Jacksonville, Texas, we rode to Rusk, to get aboard the train to Palestine. This is not a regular scheduled ride for people to travel between the two cities, but a scenic tour of the Piney Woods of East Texas. During Dogwood blooming season, or changing of the leaves, it would be more scenic, but today, everything was gray, overcast, but a very nice trip without the potential postcard views. In 1970, the Rusk depot was built to resemble a 1920's style depot. In the late 1800's, the Texas Prison System built a short run of track, which was the start of the current Texas State Railroad track, to access the hardwood timber, which was used to make charcoal for the prison iron smelting operation. They made the iron for the
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