Former Gulf, Texas & Western Railroad Depot

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. There's a depot sitting in Jack County that has a story worth slowing down for. Stone.

Real stone, pulled from a nearby quarry and shaped into something meant to last. The year was 1910, and the Risley Brothers were the contractors who put it all together. Not a bad piece of work, as it turns out, because it's still standing.

Now, this wasn't just any railroad facility. It was part of Jacksboro's second railroad, and that detail right there ought to make you curious. A second railroad means there was a first, and it means folks wanted more.

This line got built by local effort, which is a polite way of saying people rolled up their sleeves and made it happen from the ground. But local effort alone doesn't always stretch far enough, and so backing came from New York bankers, R. C.

Megargel and Company, who saw something worth financing out here in Jack County. Stone from a nearby quarry. Contractors named Risley.

Local will backed by distant money. That depot stood as the meeting point of all of it. The marker itself was given by Mr. and Mrs.

Aaron Hull, and that generosity is how this story stays told. A building raised in 1910 from the ground up, and somebody made sure the record of it wouldn't just quietly disappear.

What the marker says

Erected 1910, of stone from nearby quarry; Risley Brothers, contractors. A facility of Jacksboro's second railroad, built by local effort, with backing from New York bankers, R. C. Megargel & Company. Recorded Texas Historical Landmark, 1968. Incise in base: Marker given by Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Hull