From Rail to Trail
The Historic Springfield depot on the White River State Trail
By Chris Brookes

The first railroad line connecting Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River ran through Springfield, Wis. in 1855. It was an important stop – not just a jerkwater, whistle stop, or tank town. A mail route, a retail line for grain, wool, lumber, milk, and butter, and a passenger stop with a real depot, the hub of the community until…“FIRE!”
The old wooden building burned down on August 12, 1910, after 55 years of service.

I am the new depot, and I’m 95 years old now. I’m the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul (CM&SP) Depot. For years I weathered under summer sun, seasonal rains, and winter snows, my paint fading and dust collecting. Robins’ nests bearded my eaves, and raccoon families burrowed below. All around me the community withered. My vacant windows stared at neglected tracks tangled with brush and trees. Small critters had the right-of-way for years. Wildflowers followed the tracks. Warblers whistled instead of engines. Cows grazed unafraid of the frightful cowcatcher. The last train passed me by more than 20 years ago.

If my walls could talk—oh, the stories they could tell! I remember the milk train switching the dairy car to the siding at Schinke’s creamery, the work train bringing gandy dancers to level the tracks, the snowplow V-ing through drifts, and the Kansas City Flyer delivering and picking up mail without even slowing down. I remember the 12-car derailment dumping grain and ripping out rails, the 1920 flood that washed away the roadbed, and the stone tunnel being replaced by the timber bridge. Mostly I remember the people – the station agent translating the clicking telegraph into news, baseball scores, and election results, and the folks coming in daily for that information. The youngsters waving at the engineer and staring wide-eyed at the circus train. The whole community gathering to send boys off to war and welcome them home as men.

My days as a depot ended in the 1950s. The owners of the feed mill and lumber yard, members of the Schinke family, bought me, moved me off railroad property, covered my hardwood floors with linoleum, and ran their businesses from my ticket office for twenty years. I’ve been sitting here ever since, holding in all these memories for a new generation. What’s to become of me? Cleared away as an eyesore, a relic of the past?

Just before the turn of this new century, I knew something was up. Men and machines tore out the tracks and covered the roadbed with limestone gravel. People prowled around discussing location, transportation, regulation, preservation.

Hey, over here! I’m the halfway point on this stretch. Ride your new-fangled bicycles uphill from here, past farms and downhill through villages. Listen to the native birdsong in the country quiet. Go autumn leaf peeping among the hardwoods. Try mushing a dog sled over the frozen, snowy trail. Travel at a slower pace and appreciate the scenic surroundings I’ve enjoyed all these years.

Then come inside. Remember bygone days in Springfield. I’ve kept the waiting rooms—men’s and women’s—and agent’s office, the freight room, ticket window, and chalkboard intact just for you. After 4,000 nails were pulled, my hardwood floors were revealed. The pot-bellied stoves and telegraph wires have been removed, but friends, families, and even strangers soon warm to conversations within my walls. Today you can chat over coffee, lunch, snacks, or browse through gifts, crafts, railroad memorabilia, and photos of Springfield history. Where else can folks reclaim this heritage? The homespun hospitality of Pedal & Cup, owned by the current generation of Schinkes – Tim and Karen—have brought business back to Springfield and made me, the 1911 CM&SP Depot, the connection between past, present, and future along the White River State Trail. My snazzy coat of red paint makes me feel young and confident, ready for another century of serving the public.

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The old CM&SP depot serves bikers, walkers, and other curious folk traveling the White River State Trail.  Completed in 2003, the White River State Trail stretches 11 miles along a converted railroad bed between the cities of Elkhorn and Burlington in southeastern Wisconsin.  Nearly $380,000 from the Stewardship Fund have been used to purchase land for the trail, as well as for trail construction and maintenance.