Wreck of the Don Milo
Halletsville, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway Company (S. A. & A. P.) was chartered by the state of Texas in 1884 to connect the city of San Antonio with Aransas Bay, and the rail line officially came to Hallettsville on April 23, 1887. A large celebration on that date brought 5,000 to town to witness the completion of the track over the Lavaca River around noon, and the evening arrival of the first train. The S. A. & A. P. Railway met financial ruin when a disastrous train wreck occurred on the wooden bridge over the Lavaca River on January 2, 1890. The river had risen to within fifteen feet of the bridge’s rails because of heavy rains. The engineer crossed the river in order to reach the water tank at the other side, because the water was necessary to power the trains steam-driven engine. The engineer then crossed back over the bridge to reattach the remaining cars. Upon preparing to cross the bridge with the entire train, the engineer realized that the trestle had been washed away by the surging water. Although the engineer was able to stop the train at the edge of the river, the weight of the train’s cargo caused it to plunge into the raging floodwaters below. The train carried liquor as part of its cargo, and the consumption of the liquor by spectators added to the confusion caused by the crowd of onlookers that soon appeared at the site. The wreck of the Don Milo, engine no. 54, caused additional problems for the S. A. & A. P., which had already been experiencing financial difficulties. The resulting lawsuits forced the company to reorganize, and the S. A. & A. P. was acquired by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1892. (2009)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway reached Hallettsville in April 1887 amid a celebration that drew 5,000 people. Less than three years later, on a flood-swollen January night in 1890, engine no. 54 — the Don Milo — plunged into the raging Lavaca River after the trestle behind it washed away. Spectators broke into the liquor spilling from the wreck, adding chaos to catastrophe, and the resulting lawsuits helped push the struggling railroad into the arms of the Southern Pacific by 1892.
Why it matters
The disaster shows both the transformative arrival of the railroad in rural Texas and the financial fragility of the small lines that raced to lay track across it.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · Wreck of the Don Milo (1890)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rabb Switch
Hallettsville, TX
La Grange native Dr. Edward M. Rabb settled in this area in the 1880s and bought more than two thousand acres, leaving instructions in his will for a wood-and-water switch to serve a coming railroad. When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass line crossed the Navidad River in 1887, the switch was built and locals loaded firewood bound for Houston, later farming the cleared land in cotton and corn. Two stores and a school followed, but after the railroad shut down in the 1950s and the school closed in 1953, the little community faded.
Old Sweet Home
Sweet Home, TX
Settled in the mid-1800s along the old Spanish trail between Houston and San Antonio, Sweet Home grew into a thriving trading and stagecoach stop after a post office opened in 1852. During the Civil War it sheltered Confederate winter camps and freight wagons hauling supplies toward Brownsville, and afterward it became ranching country, with cattleman George West and an influx of Czech and German immigrants. When the railroad laid tracks five miles south in 1887, businesses relocated and the original townsite faded into a cemetery and a few scattered remnants.
Sulphur Park
Shiner, TX
In the summer of 1930, landowner Jake Kurtz set aside four acres beside the newly paved State Highway 95 to build a huge concrete swimming pool fed by a sulphur-laced mineral well. Excavated with horse- and mule-drawn scrapers, the 120-foot pool opened on "Splash Day" that August with barbecue, a turkey shoot, a baseball tournament, and live music before hundreds of visitors. For over sixty years Sulphur Park—with its dance floor, ball field, and picnic grounds—was a beloved country oasis for the Shiner and Moulton communities.
Half Moon
Shiner, TX
Named for the crescent shape of its timber, Half Moon on Rocky Creek was a gathering place for Native peoples and travelers long before Spanish explorers noted it in 1689. Settlers arrived from the 1830s to trade and farm, and at its height in the mid-1880s the community boasted stores, a saloon, and a post office. When Henry B. Shiner donated land for a railroad in 1887, the rails bypassed Half Moon, and its people and commerce drained away into the new town of Shiner.