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Apr 26, 2009 10:39 pm US/Central
Finding Minnesota: A Simpler Time On The Rails
WAYZATA, Minn. (WCCO) ―
The Great Northern Railway doesn't stop at the
Wayzata Depot anymore. In fact, it's been decades since the last passengers boarded there.
But while the trains have left the station, the station can still take visitors on a trip.
The old depot is now a place to touch, feel and experience the days of train travel, with some of the same furnishings from when James J. Hill built it more than a century ago.
Visitors can see what it was like when telegraphs announced the next locomotive in Morse code. Phone calls had to be patched in from one line to another. Before the days of two-way radios on trains, station workers had to actually write out messages to engineers and hold them on a stick outside, as the train passed.
About 12 people volunteer their time to demonstrate all of this during the warmer months of the year.
"I think to be able to show people of all ages what it was like back then, it's a real plus for everybody," said Terry Middlekauff, one of the volunteer Station Masters.
He said the youngest visitors are drawn to things like an old adding machine and a vintage typewriter.
"They think it's a keyboard," said Station Master John Lebens, touching the keys gently. "So they come up and they just touch it, you know. And of course nothing happens. You have to tell them you have to hit it like a karate chop, with your finger. Otherwise nothing is going to happen."
With an old calliope outside churning out nostalgic tunes, the depot is a place to go and appreciate how others got by with simpler things.
"And a lot of the people that were born and raised here and then left the community come back to visit. They just love it because it's one thing that stayed the same," explained Lebens.
The
Wayzata Depot is open for limited hours on the weekends, along with Wednesday afternoons, from April through December.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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