A HERITAGE COMPLEX

Heritage travelers will be delighted to find eight restored buildings from the East Texas past situated on five acres in the Texas Forest Trail city of Henderson, a collection of heritage artifacts known as the Rusk County Depot Museum Complex. The complex includes the T. J. Walling log cabin, built in 1841 and considered one of the oldest and best documented log structures in the state, earning it a Texas Historical Medallion. Nearby is the only outhouse in the state with its own historical marker. The Arnold Outhouse is a Victorian three-holer with a louvered glass window and small porch. The 1880 Beall-Ross dogtrot home represents the period's typical architectural design for a rural east Texas residence. But domestic life isn't the only thing represented on the site. The restored 1901 Missouri-Pacific Depot is joined by the Missouri Pacific caboose, a broom factory, and a restored syrup mill. The mill is featured during the annual Heritage Syrup Festival in Henderson. These remnants of a Rusk County past help to tell a narrative of boom and bust for a region that saw prosperity and despair over the course of the last century and a half. The Museum Complex, simple and time-worn, creates a link between present and past with its folk art program, designed to keep our heritage arts alive.