M&B Railroad Memorial Park

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The M&B Railroad Memorial Park sits on Main Street North in Blountstown and remembers the Marianna and Blountstown line that once ran through the town. A historic locomotive stands in the park, and the old depot near the town center has been turned into a public space with a railroad museum in it. The 3.4-mile greenway that follows the old railroad bed runs from here, which makes the park the natural place to start a walk or a ride. The line was twenty-nine miles long, which made it the shortest railroad in Florida, and it ran sixteen miles further south to Scotts Ferry until 1938. It hauled millions of board feet of long-leaf pine along with farm produce, mail, manufactured goods and building materials, and carried passengers until 1929. Steam locomotive number 444 was still working when the railroad's first diesel arrived in 1947, and that locomotive now stands on the exact line of the old roadbed. A state historical marker, number F-339, was put up in 1992 by Representative Robert Trammell with the Florida Department of State, at the corner of Railroad Avenue and North Pear Street. The park is where the greenway begins, so the railroad and the trail that replaced it are the same ground