Atlanta keeps its railroad beginning at the depot

Atlanta's restored railroad depot now holds a visitor center and local-history museum. A display there honors Atlanta native Bessie Coleman. That is a fitting use because the railroad helped create the town around it. The old station gathers the later chapters without hiding the tracks that started the story.

Historical accounts differ on Atlanta's founding year, but the outline is clear. The town developed beside the Texas and Pacific Railway in the early 1870s. Settlers named it for Atlanta, Georgia, a former home for many of them. Lumber drove its early growth. By 1885, several sawmills worked near a town that also had a bank, schools, churches, stores, and the weekly Citizens' Journal.

The lumber boom crested around 1890, when Atlanta's population reached 1,764. Decades later, activity in the Rodessa oilfield helped carry the community through the Depression. The depot holds more than a train story. It connects the timber town and the oil years in the building that gave Atlanta a route to wider markets. The station still serves that role.