Port Royal State Historic Park

About Port Royal State Historic Park

Port Royal State Park is a place of peaceful natural beauty, and it is a historic park and a park for day trips. The park is a satellite of Dunbar Cave State Park, but Port Royal is both the historic park and the park of the day.

This was the route the Cherokee Indians took during their expulsion in 1837-38, known as the "Way of Tears," and is an important place on this route to the West. In the diary documenting the distance, Port Royal is mentioned as the place where the Cherokees stayed to feed and grind corn. This old Indian Trail, which led from the Ohio River across the Red River at PortRoyal, became an important stagecoach route in the early 19th century.

Not much is known about the first bridge, since its remains were washed away in a flood in 1866.

A second bridge was built in 1903, and the current bridge is a reconstruction of the former bridge.

When workers removed wooden supports from the bridge, a 200-foot section collapsed, sending three workers and one bystander into the Red River. The bridge was rebuilt the following year and served the area until 1955, when a new concrete and steel bridge was built. This old covered bridge fell into disrepair, fell into the river in 1972 and then again in 1983.

In 1977, Tennessee rebuilt the current covered bridge and received $1.5 million from the Army Corps of Engineers, and in October 1978, Port Royal was inaugurated as a historic state zone.

On 10 June 1998, heavy rain and a tornado caused serious damage to the bridge and much of the structure was destroyed, although half of it is still standing. The sulphur fork bridge was built in 1890 by Pratt & Company, a metal construction company specializing in the construction and construction of bridges and other structures for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The example of the Pratt truss construction is significant due to the use of steel and steel frame construction, as well as its unique design.

The Bluff Trail stretches along the Red River and begins at the bridge that covers a 1.4 mile stretch of the park's east coast and the southern end of Port Royal State Park. The bridge is open to foot traffic only and wildflowers and birds swarm on this leisurely 1 / 4 mile walk. For more information, you will need a map, map guide or copy of your parking map from the Texas Department of Natural Resources.