Spiderweb Railroad

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Spiderweb Railroad, down in Cameron County. Now, some railroads get their names stamped on a map by a politician or a cartographer. This one earned its name from the land itself, from the way its lines crept out across the valley like something spun in the night.

Let me tell you how it happened. Col. Sam A.

Robertson founded the town of San Benito in 1907, and a man who builds a town from scratch is not the type to stop there. He promoted and built the San Benito and Rio Grande Valley Railway, designed to give the farming areas of the valley a more accessible and efficient way to move their products out into the world. That was the idea, plain and purposeful.

But the execution, well, that's where it gets interesting. The first phase of the rail line was begun in 1911, and Col. Robertson handed that work to his brother, Frank S.

Robertson, who supervised the whole operation. Frank oversaw the construction of feeder rail lines that pushed out into remote farming areas, bringing trackside loading facilities right to the edge of the brushland. And those lines didn't run in a neat straight shot.

They branched, and branched again, and spread in every direction across the valley floor. People looked at the map and saw exactly one thing. A spiderweb.

The name stuck so well that hardly anyone called it anything else. Before long, trains carrying freight and passengers were making two round trips daily over routes that eventually stretched a hundred and twenty-eight miles. A hundred and twenty-eight miles of web, humming with commerce, connecting remote farms to the wider world and turning brushland into irrigated farmland.

For many years the Spiderweb remained essential to the valley's rise as one of the leading agricultural regions of the nation. That is no small thing to say, and the marker does not say it lightly. But the web, intricate as it was, could not hold forever.

Improved roads came. Motor transportation came. Loading facilities grew more centralized, and the traffic on the line declined.

The spiderweb went quiet. What remains today, the marker tells us, is a reminder of the pioneer farmers and businessmen who were instrumental in the area's early growth. Col.

Sam Robertson built a town, then built a railroad to feed it, and the valley grew up around both. Some legacies run on rails. Some run on memory.

This one ran on a hundred and twenty-eight miles of both.

What the marker says

Col. Sam A. Robertson, who founded the town of San Benito in 1907, promoted and built the San Benito & Rio Grande Valley Railway. It was designed to provide a more accessible and efficient transportation system for the shipping of area farm products. Because of the railroad's intricate network of lines and spurs, it was commonly known as the Spiderweb Railroad. The first phase of the rail line were begun in 1911 under the supervision of Col. Robertson's brother Frank S. Robertson. Construction of the feeder rail lines brought trackside loading facilities to the remote farming areas of the valley and assured the continuing development of brushland into irrigated farms. Trains carrying freight and passengers were soon making two round trips daily over routes that eventually stretched 128 miles. For many years the Spiderweb remained essential to the valley's development as one of the leading agricultural regions of the nation. Traffic on the line declined, however, because of improved roads, motor transportation and more centralized loading facilities. Today the history of the line serves as a reminder of the pioneer farmers and businessmen who were instrumental in the area's early growth.