Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail

It is a paved state trail on the old Tallahassee-St. Marks Railroad bed, running from Tallahassee in Leon County to the coastal town of St. Marks in Wakulla County.

The Florida State Parks trail page says the trail runs 16 miles from Florida's capital city to St. Marks, that it is officially part of Florida's Greenways and Trails System, that it has been designated a National Recreation Trail, and that it was the first rail-trail in that state system to be paved. The same agency's trail history page gives a different length, 20.5 miles, for the same route. The two official figures are not reconciled on either page.

The difference matches how the corridor is managed. The 2010 National Recreation Trails record describes a state-managed section running 16 miles due south from the main trailhead just south of Capital Circle (US 319) to the Town of St. Marks, plus an additional 4.5 miles of trail north of the Capital Circle trailhead maintained by the City of Tallahassee. The NRT record gives the certification date as May 2, 2010. Florida State Parks describes the corridor as a completed section of the developing 120-mile Capital City to the Sea Loop and a destination along the Big Bend Scenic Byway.

The trail follows the Tallahassee Railroad, which Florida State Parks calls the oldest incorporated railroad company in Florida.

Florida State Parks' railroad history article says the Tallahassee Railroad Company received the first Congressional Land Grant ever given to a railroad in 1831 and formed in 1834 to build a 22-mile line from Tallahassee to St. Marks. The state historical marker, listed by the Florida Division of Historical Resources, says the Tallahassee to St. Marks railroad began operations in 1837, that the company was incorporated in 1834, and that the road was single track, twenty-three miles long, with mule drawn cars. The marker, dated 1961, gives its location as 5148 Woodville Highway.

Cotton was the reason for the line. A Florida State Parks article on the significance of the railroad explains that a wagon road from Tallahassee to the St. Marks River was under construction as early as 1826, but it ran through deep sand, so efforts began to build a railroad to St. Marks, where the deep Spanish Hole at the meeting of the St. Marks and Wakulla rivers let schooners moor even at low tide. Cotton growers shipped their crop to textile mills in England and New England, naval stores merchants moved turpentine, rosin, pitch and tar, and timber interests reached East Coast ports.

The official sources date the early Tallahassee-St. Marks milestones differently, and the table below sets them side by side.

The disagreements are real. The marker places the first steam locomotive in 1839, while the Florida State Parks significance article has the first locomotive arriving in November 1837 and the history article has mule-drawn carriages replaced by locomotives in 1856. The history article also says approximately 30,000 bales of cotton were moved on the railroad by 1837, and the marker says the railroad did a large volume of business in cotton during the antebellum period.

The Tallahassee-St. Marks railroad stopped operating in 1983, and in 1984 the Florida Department of Transportation bought 16 miles of the corridor for Florida's first rails-to-trails project, according to Florida State Parks.

Before that, the line had its one military moment. The Florida State Parks significance article says Confederates used the railroad during the Civil War to move troops, artillery and supplies in defense of Tallahassee, and that in March 1865 it deployed Confederate troops quickly south from the capital, which enabled Generals Samuel Jones and William Miller to defeat Union General John Newton at the Battle of Natural Bridge on March 6, 1865. The trail page adds that through the early 1900s the corridor carried cotton from the plantation belt to the coast and that the railroad was active longer than any other in Florida.

Little of the St. Marks railroad survives beyond its route. The same article says no railroad structures other than the rail bed, a commissary building and one turpentine loading platform remain, and that the present 60-foot-wide trail corridor occupies the same original land grant, except where the railroad was rerouted around private property. The NRT record states that the Florida Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund holds fee simple title, that the property is leased to the Florida Park Service through December 15, 2043, and that paving was funded by the Florida Department of Transportation.

Florida State Parks lists three trailheads, on Woodville Highway in Tallahassee, Old Woodville Road in Crawfordville and Riverside Drive in St. Marks.

The Florida State Parks trail guide says the trail length is 16 miles, paved, 8 to 12 feet wide, extends north of Capital Circle into the city of Tallahassee, and has benches along the way. Approximately 1.25 miles south of the main trailhead, riders and hikers can reach the Munson Hills Trail in the Apalachicola National Forest, where some of the area's last remaining stands of longleaf pine exist. The trail page adds that a portion of the Florida National Scenic Trail joins the route at U.S. 98 and continues south, and that the southern end meets St. Marks and San Marcos de Apalache Historical State Park.

Woodville is the first community south of the main trailhead. Leon County lists J. Lewis Hall Sr. (Woodville) Park with a baseball field, basketball court, multi-purpose field, picnic area, playground, restroom, trail and water fountain, open 7 days a week in daylight, phone 850-606-1470. Farther south, the NRT record describes the barrier-free Felburn Foundation Boundless Playground at the Wakulla Station Trailhead, which Florida State Parks reports has been closed since January 25, 2024.

The City of Tallahassee says a Blueprint section of the Capital Cascades Trail, built with a FAMU Way phase, was the final piece needed to fully connect to the St. Marks Trail.

On its FAMU Way project updates page, the City of Tallahassee says that phase extended FAMU Way between Pinellas Street and Gamble Street and added the Tallahassee Junction stormwater facility, with a quarter-mile walking trail, water fountains, sheltered picnic areas, a bike repair station and a binocular station. With the Capital Cascades Trail continuation, the city says, residents can walk and bike from Cascades Park to the coast without ever needing to get in a lane with car traffic.

The roadway itself was finished later. The same City of Tallahassee page says FAMU Way was completed in three phases, from Wahnish Way to Lake Bradford Road, with three roundabouts, wide sidewalks, a multi-use trail connecting to the St. Marks Trail, a gathering place at Lake Anita and a children's playground, and that a ribbon cutting on April 30 opened the Lake Bradford Road connection to traffic.

Florida State Parks lists the St. Marks Trail as open 8 a.m. to sunset, 365 days a year, with no fee required.

The Florida State Parks trail page gives the St. Marks Trail contact number as 850-487-7989 and lists bicycling, hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, picnicking, roller blading, walking and running and wildlife viewing among the experiences. Listed amenities include an equestrian trail, interpretive exhibit, nature trail, parking, pets, picnic pavilion, playground, restroom facilities, water fountain and wheelchair access. Horseback riding uses the adjacent unpaved trail, and the NRT record lists dogs on leash among allowed uses and reports over 220,000 annual visitors as of its 2010 application.

Two playground closures are posted. Florida State Parks says the playground at the Tallahassee-St. Marks trail has been closed to visitors since March 10, 2025, and the playground at the Wakulla Station Trailhead since January 25, 2024. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection Office of Greenways and Trails listed its annual First Day Bikes at the Capital Circle Trailhead for Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., for riders of all ages; that ride has now passed.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Florida State Parks trail, trail history, railroad history, significance and hiking pages, the state marker record, the NRT record, the Office of Greenways and Trails page, Leon County's Woodville park listing and the City of Tallahassee FAMU Way page.