I pulled up to the train depot in the East Texas city of Palestine, $220 poorer after falling into a speed trap in the nearby town of Oakwood. The indifferent officer had given me my first-ever speeding ticket.
Thankfully, I was scheduled to be a passenger, not a driver, for the next four hours. I arrived early for my historical train ride through the Piney Woods, and there were already scores of passengers lounging at picnic tables and inspecting the behemoth train cars that stood sentinel over the Victorian-style depot.
The Palestine Rail Depot is the western terminus of a line that once connected to the newly constructed Rusk Penitentiary at the turn of the 20th century. The state’s second prison did more than relieve crowding at the flagship facility in Huntsville—it provided a captive workforce to drive the area’s burgeoning iron ore industry. The 25-mile rail line between Rusk and Palestine was largely staffed by incarcerated Texans during its heyday.
