12. Bed of the St. Joseph and Iola Railroad

Highway 71

Pilings of St. Joseph and Iola Railroad trestle at Dead Lakes

The bed of the St. Joseph and Iola Railroad follows Hwy. 71 from White City to south of Wewahitchka, along Lake Grove Rd., and across Dead Lakes to the Old Iola Landing on the Apalachicola River.

The railroad was 28-miles long (the longest in Territorial Florida) and was completed in 1839 at a cost of $300,000 as a means of transporting cotton from the Apalachicola River to St. Joseph after the St. Joseph and Lake Wimico Railroad proved unsuccessful. Passenger service was also available for $1 per trip. The railroad continued to operate until the decline of St. Joseph in 1841.

The fee for a bale of cotton was only 15 cents because the business men of St. Joseph were still determined to establish St. Joseph as a leading cotton exporting city. Still in 1839-40, nearly 75% of that season’s bumper crop was exported from the rival city of Apalachicola.

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