Moscow, Locomotives, and a Rainbow

July 29, 2023

A lot of our adventures do not start out as adventures. Often, one or both of us will simply want to get out of the house and suggest going to lunch or getting a drink at Sonic. Then, inevitably, the question arises, “What do you want to do next?”

Today was such a day. Kristi asked me if I wanted to get a hamburger at our favorite diner. Of course, I said yes. About an hour later we were sitting in Daisy’s Diner, having just finished our hamburgers, and trying to decide what to do next.

We needed water hoses, household cleaners, and Magic Shell Chocolate Topping, so Kristi put in a pickup order at Walmart. But the order wouldn’t be ready for a few hours. So, what were we to do in the meantime? Go for a drive, of course!

Route: Moscow, Locomotives, and Rainbows, Part I

I didn’t have a planned route but have been wanting to drive FM 350 in nearby Polk County. Part of this road follows the path of the Coushatta Trace, which I have documented to some extent in Connecting the Dots in Grimes County and Around (the Other Side of) the Lake.

The Coushatta Trace was a road, created by the Coushatta Indians, that once ran from a village on the Sabine River to the Atascosito Road in present-day Colorado County. To call it a road is probably generous, as it was described as a foot path that was barely wide enough for horses.

Not much is left of the original route of the trace, but a section of FM 350 west of Moscow, Texas is said to be a remnant that has survived to the present.

Since we were following the trace, I reasoned that the official starting point of the adventure should be the Lake Livingston Bridge at Patrick’s Ferry. This site is near the location of the abandoned Batisse Village, a Coushatta settlement along the trace, the remnants of which are now under the lake.

Travelling over the lake and through the town of Onalaska, we turned north onto FM 3152, around which we explored in our Roads to Nowhere adventure. FM 3152 ends at FM 350. We turned left (north) onto FM 350 and headed toward Moscow.

FM 350 makes a sharp turn to the right and heads east. I believe that, at this point, it is following the path of the Coushatta Trace. The countryside along this portion of the road is surrounded by beautiful forests and pastures.

At the risk of repeating myself, the weather in Texas has been very hot this summer. This, among other things, has limited our ability to explore on foot. However, there were a few sights on today’s adventure that deserved getting out of the comfort of the truck’s air conditioning to see up-close. The first was this herd of horses in a pasture along FM 350. Unlike us, they were being smart by staying in the shade.

We had, in fact, passed the horses and decided to turn back to take pictures. Since we were pointed the way we came, we decided to explore a few dirt roads that would eventually lead us to Moscow. So, we went past the horse pasture and turned south onto, well, South Road.

There wasn’t much to see down this way except some horses cooling off in a livestock tank, but it was a pretty drive.

South Road ended at Old Berring Road, which in the past led to a community named Bering (yes, the spelling is different). The Bering sawmill was built in the 1880s when the HE&WT railroad was built through the area (more on that, later). A community centered itself around the mill and remained until the mill closed in the 1920s. I’m not certain of the exact location of Bering and saw no signs of it as we drove down Old Berring Road.

But we did come across a spectacular patch of Spanish moss covering tree limbs that arched over the road.

A short distance past the mossy trees we crossed Long King Creek, which was dry, and came to the tracks of “The Rabbit,” the Union Pacific Railroad that runs from Houston, Texas to Shreveport, Louisiana.

This line was originally the Houston East and West Texas Railroad (HE&WT), a 3-foot narrow gauge line built between 1876 and 1886. The HE&WT’s primary investor was the somewhat eccentric hatter, entrepreneur, and financier, Paul Bremond. It had a major impact on the economic growth and settling of East Texas. If you are interested in learning about the HE&WT’s history (including how it was converted to standard gauge in a single day!) then I highly recommend reading, Whistle in the Piney Woods, by Robert S. Maxwell.

Old Berring Road ended at another dirt road, the name of which came as a bit of a surprise: Old Highway 35 North. “Highway 35?” Neither of us were aware of a Highway 35 in these parts. U.S. 59 parallels it a short distance away, so what would be the purpose of another highway here? Besides, it was just a dirt road…

While doing research for this post, though, I discovered that State Highway 35, which currently runs along the Texas coast between Corpus Christi and Houston, was originally intended to run from Paris, Texas to Houston. The route was proposed in 1917, long before U.S. 59 was built, and underwent several revisions until the portion north of Houston was abandoned. So, yes, this humble dirt road in East Texas was intended for greater things but was destined to end up a minor footnote in the history of Texas roads.

This section of Old Highway 35 ends in the small community of Moscow. The area was settled in the 1840s by David and Matilda Green. An application for a post office was submitted, naming the town Greenville. However, the name was rejected by the postal service as being too similar to another Texas town (possibly Greensboro). So, the residents of Greenville changed the name to that of a place that was far enough away to avoid confusion: Moscow.

I have to wonder why they picked Moscow, specifically. Was it something to do with nearby Sebastopol‘s connection to Russia? Did the name of neighboring Bering have some sort of influence? I was unable to find further information.

Moscow experienced its heyday in the early 20th century when the lumber industry brought jobs and other economic opportunities to the region. For a time, it was the largest town in Polk County, with a population of a whopping 263 people. Now, it seems a barely noteworthy “spot in the road” between Livingston and Lufkin on U.S. 59.

That’s not to say that it is not worth visiting, though. Nearly every small town has its special charms, things to see, and stuff to do. We only visited briefly, and so probably missed out on a lot of things. But we did make one major stop that proved interesting at the time, and then fascinating for a different reason later on.

Earlier in our journey, Kristi texted a friend and told her that we were headed to Moscow. The friend said that she had another friend who had created the stained-glass windows for the Moscow First Baptist Church. So, we visited the church, which is located on Old Highway 35 in town, to take a look.

The windows depict common symbols used by many Christian denominations. The scripture quotes are my own selections from the NKJV.

Kristi took this shot of the church steeple. While preparing the images for this post, though, I happened to notice a significant detail that we had missed when the picture was taken. Look below the light meter and you will see not one, but two rainbows!

This full-size image shows the rainbows more clearly:

People who know us, and long-time readers of this blog, know that Kristi and I consider rainbows as symbols of our sweet Patrick, who died in a car wreck in 2018. “Rainbow” was his favorite color because it had “all the colors.”

Both of us are puzzled as to the origin of these particular rainbows. Neither of us noticed them when the picture was taken (attention was focused on the steeple), and we didn’t see them on the phone screen.

The glass around the lenses on Kristi’s phone has some cracks. When bright light hits them a certain way, they will generate rainbow “spikes,” as seen in images from our Epic and Beautiful and Freedom Colonies adventures. But these look different.

It is difficult to tell whether they are internal lens reflections or being projected onto the wall of the church from another source, such as the truck mirror. Either way, they are a sweet reminder of our precious son.

Route: Moscow, Locomotives, and Rainbows, Part II

The church is near the intersection of Old Highway 35 and FM 350. FM 350 ends a block away at U.S. 59, but Rock Island Road continues on the other side. This dirt road once led to the community of Rock Island a few miles east of Moscow. Rock Island, like so many small communities in the area, was centered around a sawmill. And like those other communities, it lived and died with the mill.

Moscow Cemetery is located a short distance from U.S. 59 along Rock Island Road. It was far too hot to go exploring, and the grass was high (snakes!), so, I took a couple of pictures from the fence.

Continuing along Rock Island Road, we came to the crossing of the Moscow, Camden and San Augustine Railroad. There is more about the MC&SA later…

The community of Rock Island was located along the banks of Johnson Creek. All of the creeks we saw in the area were dry.

Rock Island Road ended at FM 942. Turning right, we headed toward the old sawmill town of Camden.

Both Camden and the MC&SA Railroad were created by the W. T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company in 1898. The headquarters building for the railroad sits near the intersection of FM 942 and FM 62.

The Moscow, Camden and San Augustine Railroad ran passenger service until the early 1970s. It is still listed as a Class III common carrier, but now exclusively ships products from the Georgia-Pacific mill in Camden to the Union Pacific mainline in Moscow. It is the oldest Texas railroad that is still operating under its original charter. Although intended to connect Moscow, Camden, and San Augustine, it never reached the latter town.

I think that there are presently two locomotives in use on the MC&SA. Locomotive No. 1 is an EMD SW1200 switcher, and No. 3 is an EMD SW900. Switcher locomotives are primarily used to move cars within a railyard but are also used for pulling cargo trains for short distances.

The sawmill town of Camden lasted for 70 years until W. T. Carter & Brother sold the mill to U.S. Plywood-Champion Paper in the late 1960s. Then, almost overnight, the town’s residents were forced to move away, their houses and buildings were demolished, and the little town disappeared. All that is left is the mill, which is now owned by Georgia-Pacific.

The mill is an impressive sight, but difficult to see from most vantage points from the roads due to, somewhat ironically, the trees.

Travelling west on FM 62 we came to a promising dirt road named W. T. Carter Road. Google Maps showed that it ran down by what I assume was the old log pond, and that Piney Point Road branched off it and headed back to FM 62.

As I’ve stated many times, though, don’t depend on Google Maps. It’s a pretty good resource, but it does not always clearly show whether a road is a “through route,” especially when viewed on a small phone screen. Piney Point came to a sudden end at a very large gate. It was obvious that we weren’t supposed to drive any further, and I was seriously questioning whether we were even allowed to be on the road at all.

But any concern of accidentally trespassing on the property of a prominent, historical Texas family was swept away when I looked out into the pasture and saw this magnificent machine sitting on display:

So, by accident, we stumbled across a display of a well-preserved 2-8-0 Mikado steam locomotive out in the middle of nowhere! A little research later revealed that No. 14, which ran for a time on the MC&SA, was once owned and displayed by The City of Houston but is now back in private hands.

We had a fun afternoon exploring, but it was time to head to Walmart and pick up our order. Remember the Magic Shell we ordered? Well, this is how we ended our day: