Texas and Pacific Railway Company

The Texas and Pacific Railway Company was the only railroad in Texas, and one of the few in the United States, to operate under a federal charter. Congress granted the charter March 3, 1871. With the end of the Civil War, the project to construct a southern transcontinental railroad was revived, and the Texas Pacific was given the right to build from Marshall, Texas, to San Diego, California. The company was granted a federal land grant of twenty sections of land per mile through California and forty sections through what are now Arizona and New Mexico and a state land grant of twenty sections in Texas.

The discovery of oil in West Texas during the late 1920s and later in East Texas had a major impact on the company. During the years of peak crude oil movement the physical condition of the railroad was significantly improved, and the Texas and Pacific was able to weather the Great Depression better than many of the other railroads in the region.

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