Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway Depot
Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The tracks of the Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway reached the town of Mineral Wells in 1891. This depot was built about 1903 to replace an earlier one that had burned. For the next 25 years it primarily served the hundreds of thousands of travelers who visited the town to take advantage of the mineral baths and spas. During World II, the railroad and depot served in the transportation of soldiers to and from nearby Camp Wolters. Outstanding features of the Romanesque revival style depot include its semi-circular arches and curvilinear brackets. (1985)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rail reached Mineral Wells in 1891, and this Romanesque revival depot was built about 1903 after fire destroyed its predecessor. For a quarter-century it welcomed the hundreds of thousands of visitors who came to "take the waters" at the town's famous mineral baths and spas. During World War II, the depot took on a new role moving soldiers to and from nearby Camp Wolters.
Why it matters
The depot links two great American stories — the health-resort tourism boom that built spa towns and the wartime mobilization that turned rail lines into arteries for troops.
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Related events
- · World War II troop transport to Camp Wolters
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Camp Wolters
Mineral Wells, TX
Established in 1925 and named for National Guard general Jacob F. Wolters, this camp began as a summer training ground for horse-mounted cavalry, with Mineral Wells donating the first fifty acres. Through the 1930s a Civilian Conservation Corps company improved the grounds, and in 1940 the site was chosen as a major training base for the national draft. During World War II it swelled into an infantry replacement center holding nearly 25,000 troops, and it also housed German prisoners of war.
Fort Wolters
Mineral Wells, TX
Growing from the 1925 National Guard grounds of "Old" Camp Wolters, this post was activated by the U.S. Army in 1940 as an infantry replacement center, expanding to more than 7,500 acres with over 100 buildings raised in under four months. It trained tens of thousands of soldiers—including Medal of Honor recipients Jack Knight and Audie Murphy—and held German POWs during World War II. Reactivated after the war, it became the Army's primary helicopter flight-training center during the Vietnam era before closing in 1973.
Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway
Cool, TX
When the Texas & Pacific reached Weatherford in 1888 but turned south to skirt the Palo Pinto Hills, the booming resort town of Mineral Wells was left without a rail link. Led by W.A. Stone, backers chartered the Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway in 1889, and on New Year's Day 1891 the first train steamed into Mineral Wells to a cheering crowd. At its height the line carried some 33,000 passengers a year to the mineral-water resort before highways, and finally 1992, ended its run.
Jack Llewellyn Knight
Cool Community, TX
A farm boy from near Garner, Jack L. Knight joined the Texas National Guard in 1940 and shipped out with his unit to the far side of the world when World War II erupted. Fighting to reopen the Burma Road, the vital overland supply line into China, he was killed while leading an assault on a Japanese position. His valor earned a posthumous Medal of Honor — the only one awarded in the entire China-Burma-India Theater — and he now rests in the cemetery named for his own great-grandfather.