(rshsdepot) Wilcox, AZ

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Photo link:
http://www.willcoxchamber.com/willcoxchamber/assets/images/depot_thumbnail.g
if

All aboard: Willcox community saves its historic depot



By Carol Broeder/Arizona Range News

A handful of residents saw potential in the dilapidated train depot in
downtown Willcox, while many others thought it should be torn down.

Yet it was construction of this Southern Pacific Depot in 1880 that
transformed the tent city known as "Maley's Camp" into the community of
Willcox.

Of all depots built by the railroad in Arizona during the initial
construction of the southern transcontinental railroad between 1871 and
1880, only the Willcox depot remains.

Vice-Mayor Dorman Brown was one of the local visionaries who got the
restoration project rolling.

Charlie and Mary Leighton had the depot put on the national register of
historic places, which saved it from demolition, he said.

In 1986, Southern Pacific agreed that Willcox could have the depot as long
as it was moved nearly 60 feet forward.

A depot committee, along with the historical society, the city, Willcox
Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, and other residents, coordinated the
project.

Kathy Klump was a leader in fund-raising to buy the land to move the depot,
Brown said. Over $30,000 was raised locally in contributions as small as 50
cents.

The committee also received a grant of $70,000 from the Arizona Heritage
Fund and $400,000 from the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Brown gives much credit for the successful project to City Manager Larry
Rains and his skills in securing the grant and grant writing, and the
business negotiations.

"It would have never happened without Larry Rains," Brown said.

Brown supervised an inmate crew who worked about five months to ready the
old depot building for its move.

The depot was lifted, put on metal beams, moved on rollers, and placed on a
new concrete foundation.

The restoration project was put out to bid, with the city as its general
contractor.

Brown said they had only about $550,000 to do the job, but the lowest bid
received was more than $800,000.

It was then that Brown offered to engineer and supervise the restoration,
and brought the project in under budget.

The 1895 freight warehouse was remodeled into the two-story office building
that houses City Hall and the1880 lobby was made into a community meeting
room.

The beautifully-restored depot was dedicated on Sept. 16, 1998, about 115
years after its original construction.

The restoration of the Station Master's quarters upstairs was completed last
year. Across the street from city hall is a restored railroad car from
Mascot and Western, a short line that ran from Willcox to the Dos Cabezas
mines.

"Our future lays in our past," Brown said, "If we don't preserve our past,
then there's no future for our young people."

Locals are invited to visit the interpretive display, including a video
narrated by Rex Allen, at City Hall during "Free Museum Day" on Saturday,
May 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Rex Allen Musem and Chiricahua Regional
Museum will also be open and free to visitors.

There will be refreshments, drawings, and special merchant promotions that
day. Entertainment begins at 10 a.m., with a ribbon cutting at the new
Dynamic Dance Studio, followed by their performance in Windmill Park at 11
a.m. The Territorial Renegades and Calico Queens will present a play at 2
p.m. in the park.

Peter Spooner, an expert in numismatics, will present a talk and an
appraisal of coins, tokens, and other small metal objects beginning at 4
p.m., at the Chiricahua Regional Museum. Spooner is the owner of American
Stamp and Coin in Tucson.


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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