Houston Railroad History - BBB&C Stafford Point
The tracks of the first railroad in Texas, The Buffalo Bayou Brazos and Colorado, reached Stafford Point in 1853 and the railroad officially commenced operations on its line from Harrisburg in August of that year. The railroad allowed sugar and cotton growers of the area to transport their crops by train to Harrisburg and then by boat to the port of Galveston and the rest of the world. This was the first milestone in the BBB&C’s march to the west, forming what would eventually be part of the southernmost transcontinental railroad.
With nothing to hinder the railroad’s choice of right of way other than crossing creeks and bayous, the rails had proceeded in a nearly straight line from Harrisburg to Stafford. Nevertheless, at a point just on the other side of the present day sound barrier on the north side of the highway, the railroad jogs to the north for a considerable distance before returning to its west southwest direction. When the rails reached Stafford in 1853, the BBB&C received a donation of 2500 acres of right of way from the owners of a new sugar mill to induce the railroad to deviate from its planned route in order to serve their mill. The track laying was redirected to run past the mill that became the Imperial Sugar Company facility in what is now the town of Sugarland.