A strip of land in downtown Mineola is gradually being transformed into the site of a future historical park complete with a walking and biking trail as well as a small passenger train visitors will be able to ride.

The location of the future Iron Horse Square historical railroad park is between the Farmer’s Market pavilion and Stone Street, bordered by the Union Pacific railroad tracks and Front Street. It belongs to UP but is leased by the city. During the last week of 2016 Mineola Street Department crews bulldozed, chipped and cleared the tangle of undergrowth, completing their mission by the end of the week.

In doing so, they unearthed the appeal of a previously overlooked part of Mineola. As one drives along Front Street, a ridge that parallels the tracks is the telltale sign of a former rail bed that is now quite apparent. A slender ribbon of trees remains and is enough to provide shade, as well as make the view prettier, to those who walk the trail. This is the former location of the KATY (the MKT, Missouri- Kansas-Texas) Railroad and the inspiration for the park.

That downtown stretch of the former Katy line will become a walking trail complete with local historical markers about Mineola and the railroads of East Texas along the route.

“We never even knew this was here,” Joyce Williams said of the project. She said old railroaders say the former rail line is referred to as a “fallen flag,” which means a defunct railroad. The park was originally the brainchild of Williams and now city alderperson, Jayne Lankford. It is now a project of Mineola’s Landmark Commission, comprised of Jim Phillips, Martha Holmes, Sue Jones, Cle Walton, Tom Pantle and Williams.

While the volunteers are working to make history with the park, the site is imbued with its own history. The Katy was built in 1881 and went from Greenville to Mineola. From Mineola it became the I&GN (International and Great Northern) and went to Troup. It was rolled up in 1956. Later down the road, or down the tracks, the volunteers’ plans call for possibly rejoining the communities that lay along this rail line with bicycle trails.

The plans for the railroad park in downtown are exciting and ambitious. Beside the pretty little just-right (about a quarter-mile) trail with historical significance, the fringe of trees and historical information posted along the path, volunteers plan to put in a small gauge train track on which people will be able to ride around the park. A train builder in Lufkin is being courted for that project. Williams said she found out that they would want a figure 8, which would prevent the tracks from wearing down on one side. The train will wrap around the basketball court and have a little scenic route through Beverly’s Garden on the same property. Volunteers also want to include a replica of the historic switching tower that was further down the line.

The Landmark Commission has already acquired a little building that was once thought to be a ticket booth to enhance the park. But it has since been discovered it wasn’t a ticket book, but railroaders have said it was likely a “flagman’s shanty.” That was basically for the purpose one could imagine a flagman might need a shanty – as a place to wait until called in to action to wave on switching trains.

Preserving the town’s railroad history is something about which volunteers are enthused and excited. They have plans for further down the line where the old interlocking tower used to be located west of the Cheek Street crossing. Some of the town’s long-time residents have memories of the structure that is memorialized in a treasured old photograph, as well as a painting. As it headed west, Williams said, the Katy once lay where the eastbound lane of Highway 80 is now and continued through what is now Lake Holbrook on to Alba.

Pieces of evidence of the old railroad’s existence are strewn here and there in Mineola. The random things include old railroad ties, spikes and engraved chunks of concrete. In the Front Street pavilion area there is an ash pit over which the engineers would pull to dump coal ashes. Every little thing seems to piece together a little bit more of the story of the intertwined history of the town and the railroad.