The weather and my schedule finally coincided to provide a sunny day last week to take the modern photo. The only thing that has not changed is Main Street in the background.
The depot in the 1909 photo had its upper story removed in 1966 during a remodel. It is now located just out of view in the 2009 photo, still being used as the Senior Center.
In the place of the depot now stands a couple of very large grain silos. The plans for building the silos included details of how the soils contained debris from the depot. It would have been fun to check the site out with a metal detector before they started building!
The tracks in the 1909 photo were realigned to fit the unit train grain loader, just out of site to the left of the 2009 photo. The large silver colored pole with the wire connected to the next pole is for connection of a harness system, so elevator employees have some protection from falling off grain hoppers when loading.
The "Coulee City" sign in the 2009 dates to the Burlington Northern era, and was placed after the depot was removed. The depot, in its new position, still retains its Northern Pacific era while lettering on black "Coulee City."
There are lots of other changes, like trees and buildings, and lack of people in the current photo. The rails now have tie plates, but the rail itself is still pretty light.
Care to add anything?
2 comments:
So I found out yesterday the older photo might be from 1890. Maybe I should retitle the post to read 12 decades?
Hey Dan,
I was just watching a film by Ken burns called "National Parks-America's best Idea" and in one of the parts it showed this old photo of the people standing around the Coulee City Depot. It was the exact same photo. Anyway I just thought it was pretty neat.
Darrin Nelson
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