Cane Belt Railroad
| Locale | Texas |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1898–1948 |
| Successor | Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Cane Belt Railroad was chartered in the U.S. state of Texas in 1898. Formed by a group of businessmen from Eagle Lake, the short-line railroad was intended to bring the area's sugarcane to market. In 1902 a disagreement between two of the railroad's chief promoters proved deadly. By 1904 the line was in operation from Sealy to Matagorda on the Gulf of Mexico. That year the company's stock was bought by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the line continued operations under lease to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway starting in 1905. By the 1920s, the local sugarcane industry collapsed but the railroad was saved by the discovery of two nearby sulphur mines. In 1948, the Cane Belt was merged into the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. In the 1990s most of the original line was abandoned after the last sulphur mine closed. By 2013, only a small portion of the line south of Bay City was operating as part of the BNSF Railway.
A circle of Eagle Lake businessmen and farmers applied for and received a charter for the Cane Belt Railroad on March 10, 1898. The area was a major producer of sugarcane and the railroad was desired to ship sugar and other local crops to market. The men who signed the charter were president Captain William Dunovant, vice president William T. Eldridge, secretary treasurer Thomas Boulden, directors Perry Clark, Osburn Green, E. P. Newsome and John W. Thatcher, and board members Rudolph Greenbaum, Frank P. Herbert and William Jasper McGee. Operating capital was $15,000 and headquarters were located in Eagle Lake. The original charter stipulated that the railroad would run 10 miles (16 km) from Lakeside to Bonus where Dunovant owned a large sugarcane plantation. In Eagle Lake there were connections with the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway and the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway.
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