PHOTO OF THE DAY: MAIN ON MONDAY

Heritage Hall Museum & Archives has been posting a “Main on Monday” photo weekly since last fall, and this is the photo that appeared on the museum’s Facebook page today. In includes the following description:

This week’s “Main on Monday” photo of an ice-coated Freeman Depot appeared in the Dec. 6, 1973 issue of the Freeman Courier, following a Thanksgiving week ice storm. After serving for eight decades, it was in disrepair and no longer essential to the train service that was still in operation in Freeman. The following year it was dismantled, although rail service continued here until October 1978. 
The Freeman Depot stood as a symbol of the founding of this community for 85 years. Although the railroad arrived in 1879 when the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad built a spur line to connect the main line from Marion Junction to Running Water on the Missouri River, the depot wasn’t built until 1888. 
Rail service was a lifeline for the community in the late 1800s and first half of the 20th century, providing both freight and passenger service. Although it remained an important resource for the “Freeman Creamery” (which became AMPI) and Freeman’s elevators into the 1960s and early 1970s, competition from the trucking industry proved to be too strong. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company officially “dispensed … and removed its station” in Freeman in 1974. Prepaid rail service to Freeman continued until October 1978, when the company abandoned the line; the track was removed in 1979, the centennial year of its arrival.
Our museum includes photos and artifacts from the time when the railroad played a pivotal role in the community. We also have a working model railroad set. We’re open weekday afternoons from noon to 4 and by appointment (605-925-7545) during the winter months.