(rshsdepot) Kelso, CA

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

From the San Bernardino County Sun.

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

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Depot face-lift almost finished

Train station to become museum

By Chuck Mueller
Staff Writer

Renovation work nears completion at the 81-year-old depot, which will serve 
as a visitors' center and museum for Mojave National Preserve, a 
1.6-million-acre wonderland 60 miles east of Barstow.
The $5.5 million depot restoration project, funded by Congress, is expected 
to be completed by fall, park Superintendent Mary Martin said.

Baggage and ticket rooms will be restored to the style of the mid-1920s, 
when they were in use. And on the second floor, two sleeping rooms will be 
refurbished.

"The Beanery also will be restored in the 1924 style, and we hope to open it 
and serve hamburgers and cookies,' Martin said.

During its heyday as a train station, everybody talked about the depot's 
famous big cookies, she said.

A variety of history and environmental exhibits are being prepared by 
Seattle-based Pacific Studio, an exhibit fabrication firm.

Some of the artifacts to be displayed came from the depot, while others were 
found in other train stations in use a half-century or more ago.

"This project has been a long time coming, and we think the public will love 
it,' Park Ranger Linda Slater said.

The vintage depot, opened by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1924 and closed 
in 1985, serves as a window into an era when the railroads opened the West. 
There was talk of demolishing the structure after it was shut down, but 
citizens rallied to save it.

Visitors to the depot will see several small dioramas depicting native 
plants and animals of the east Mojave and can visualize early days in Kelso, 
where residents worked at the nearby Vulcan iron ore mine.

"A lot of photographs and some vintage artifacts like Indian pottery and 
baskets will be displayed, along with railroad equipment such as lanterns 
and tongs used to lift railway ties,' Slater said. "And there will be 
branding irons once used at area ranches.'

Walls at the station are being repainted in original colors, a sandy decor 
with turquoise trim outside, and a pale yellow inside with dark-stained 
woodwork.

"Interpretative exhibits on the first floor will feature the area's natural 
resources such as the Kelso dunes and Joshua tree forest, and displays of 
wildlife like the desert tortoise,' Martin said.

Native wildflowers and models of some park creatures, like the sidewinder 
rattlesnake, fringed-toed lizard and kangaroo rat will be on display.

"Other exhibits will feature old newspapers and maps, and displays on 
mining, grazing and homesteading,' Martin said.

The building's basement will be turned into a classroom for visiting 
students, part of the preserve's 546,000 annual visitors.

The Kelso Depot is one of three vintage railroad stations in San Bernardino 
County's desert in various stages of being restored to its former state.

Barstow's 94-year-old Harvey House depot, known as the Casa del Desierto, 
houses two museums and the Chamber of Commerce.

In Needles, plans call for restoring the century-old El Garces train 
station, considered the crown jewel of a chain of Harvey House 
hotel-restaurants that spanned the West during the heyday of the railroads.

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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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