Blackland Soil Sits Under Falls County's Railroad Story

Falls County covers 765 square miles in the Blackland Prairie, with broad flats, gently rolling ground, and the Brazos River through the middle. The region takes its name from deep, fertile black soils.

Those soils once supported tallgrass prairie dominated by big bluestem, little bluestem, indiangrass, and switchgrass. Much of that prairie was later plowed for food and forage crops, leaving farms and pasture where tall grass once held the ground.

Between 1880 and 1930, the county's farms increased from 2,492 to 6,014. Cotton rose from 12,495 to 61,989 bales.

When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway crossed the county in 1890-92, Rosebud, Travis, Lott, Chilton, and Satin formed along its route. Population shifted west with them. The tracks explain where those towns formed; the blackland explains why so much freight was waiting.