City Spotlight: Rusk
Rusk is a historic little town tucked behind the Pine Curtain of East Texas, where the pine trees get so dense you can barely see through them. But peek behind the curtain and you’ll find a great old, historic town full of surprising little wonders.
All Aboard for Rusk
The best way to get there is to ride the historic Texas State Railroad, which is a 50-mile round-trip between Palestine and Rusk. The journey to Rusk is an incredible adventure all on its own: Every train has vintage, refurbished cars that play old-timey music and some seating options serve lunch and drinks. It even includes a narrated journey, so you feel like you’re traveling through an Old West documentary as you ride through the Piney Woods toward Rusk.
When you pull into the Rusk depot, head into town and make your first stop at the Heritage Center of Cherokee County. They’ve done a fantastic job preserving all the different eras of Texas history, from before its settlement, through the Civil War, and into Rusk’s booming timber industry in the 20th century. One of my favorite exhibits there is about the Rusk State Hospital, one of Texas’ largest psychiatric hospital. The museum takes you all the way back to its origins in 1883 as a state penitentiary, to its conversion in 1919 into a mental institution, to its refurbishment and modernization into the Texas State Hospital, which is the main contributor to the Rusk economy today.
Oh, and if riding the Texas State Railroad got you excited about traveling through the Piney Woods, you should know that the “longest wooden footbridge in America” is in Rusk. It’s about 550 feet long and was built to get you from one side of town to the other if the creek ever flooded. It’s a niche little bucket list item for Texas travelers.
While You’re in Town
If you’re a baseball fan (specifically, a Houston Astros fan), you have to eat at All Star Bar-B-Q while you’re in Rusk. The barbecue is incredible, and they’re particularly known for their ribs and their chopped beef brisket sandwiches. But Houston Astros nuts will think they died and went to heaven — the walls and ceilings at All Star are covered in more Astros memorabilia than I’ve ever seen in my life. There are relics from the old Astrodome, pennants, and so many autographs from players like Jeff Bagwell, Nolan Ryan, and Roger Clemens that you’d think they were pen pals with the owner (who’s obviously a die-hard Astros fan).
The other fantastic eatery is La Charra, a Mexican restaurant just off Rusk’s main square. The owner grew up in Piedras Negras, Mexico, which is just across the Texas border from Eagle Pass and (funnily enough) is the town that invented nachos. So, when you go to La Charra, you absolutely have to try her Piedras Negras nachos, which are stacked with everything in the kitchen — I’m talking chicken, beef, queso, guacamole, corn, all the fixings.
One last odd but awesome thing to do while you’re in Rusk: Out in the woods, there’s an apiary called Bulah’s Best Farm. The beekeeper who runs it does more than just raise bees and sell honey (which you can get infused with nearly 20 different flavors, including chocolate and lavender). She’s also an apitherapist, a form of alternative medicine that uses bee products. She turns honey, pollen, even bee venom into tinctures for treating eczema, arthritis, you name it. And as if all that weren’t enough, she also cooks up a mean “Bee Sting” hot sauce, which makes for a great souvenir of your trip to Rusk.
Explore more of Texas’ small towns with “The Daytripper” here.
