(rshsdepot) Laramie, WY

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From today's Laramie Boomerang.

Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Laramie celebrates depot's 80th birthday

By Aaron LeClair
To celebrate the birthday of a historical landmark, members of the Laramie 
Railroad Depot Board invite the public to attend a free birthday party for 
the depot on Wednesday from 3:30-8 p.m.

According to Laramie Depot Board president Rod Godby, the event will be held 
to honor and recognize a building that was part of an industry that had 
literally created Laramie.

"The reason we're doing this is because Oct. 6 is the 80th anniversary of 
the reopening of this building," he said. "This is to kind of get people to 
think about what (the depot) means to them."

In addition, Godby said, the depot board also wanted to reestablish the 
depot as a community building that could host weddings and other events.

According to historical records, the original Laramie Depot was constructed 
at the foot of Ivinson in 1868, and served as a station/hotel combination 
for many years.

Following a renovation in 1900, when it became the Thornburgh Hotel, the 
building burned down on Oct. 1, 1917.

After the fire, the current station was built in an area that was once 
occupied by brothels and taverns. This building opened on Oct. 6, 1924, as 
the Laramie Union Pacific Depot, and served as a passenger station until 
1985, when Union Pacific had decided to tear it down.

But through concerted efforts by a number of local citizens, a deal was 
struck with Union Pacific to donate the depot to the Laramie Plains Museum 
for preservation.

Safe from deconstruction, the depot sat quietly for several years before 
Amtrak restarted passenger service in Wyoming in the early 1990s.

"It was on and off through the 80s," Godby said about passenger 
transportation through the Wyoming corridor. "Then they began (passenger 
transport) again in the early 90s, and it ran until 1997."

Amtrak retained the depot's lease until 2000, when it was turned over to the 
Laramie Plains Museum. To manage the building, the museum created the 
Laramie Depot Board, a non-profit group whose goal is to preserve the 
railroad heritage of Laramie.

The depot's birthday bash on Wednesday will begin at 3:30 p.m., when depot 
board members host an open house, Godby said. This will be followed by tours 
of the facility from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

At the same time the tours are running, Godby said that food would be 
served. "At 5:30, the food will show up," he said. "We'll have finger foods 
and sandwiches."

After the tours will be a cake-cutting ceremony from 6:30-7 p.m.

Shortly after that, noted railroad historian Jack Wolf will give a 
presentation titled "The Union Pacific over Sherman Hill" from 7-8 p.m. "He's 
just going to talk about the history of the railroad, the UP from here to 
Cheyenne," said Godby.

While Godby said that he doesn't expect people to stay for the entire 
evening, he invited people just to come and take a look at the depot.

"We're just kind of inviting people down to the station to rediscovery it," 
he said.

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

------------------------------

End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1007
********************************

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