ORE CITY, Texas (KETK) – Ore City sits in Upshur County with Highway 2-59 running right through it. Close by to Lone Star which was our last salute spot.

Ore City got its name from, you can probably guess it, ore. Settlers found deposits of it back in the 1860’s and it was a hush-hush operation where only a few people knew about it.

Decades late word got out about the precious metals, and a large scale mining station was built in 1910.

The next year the Santa Fe Railroad signed an agreement to lay rails from Ore City to Port Bolivar, near Galveston.

Work began and they were able to get 30-miles finished and then boom, World War I.

Men were sent to western front and the railroad was left abandoned and uncomplete.

After that Ore city’s prosperity vanished and the area stayed the same size.

Today, Ore city is called home by over 1100 people and is now known as Upshur County’s ‘second city’.

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