By Norma Dittman
Murray County News Staffwriter
Several people gathered for a tour of the Fulda Depot, the Fulda Depot Annex Building and the Fulda Heritage Society Caboose on Wednesday afternoon. The event was sponsored by the Fulda Memorial Library, Slayton Library, and Murray County Heritage Society.
The tour began inside the Fulda Depot, with Fulda Heritage Society members Loretta Gehl, Jerry Johnson and Marge Winter conducting the depot portion of the tour. The tour group learned that the very first train arrived in Fulda on September 7, 1879. Winter told the group that they were standing in the waiting room that was designated for women and children. “The other waiting room was for the men,” she said.
When asked about the architectural style of the depot, Johnson stated that it is a two-story, Eastlake Style and that it is the only one of its kind that remains in southwestern Minnesota.
The Fulda Depot is actually several separate rooms on the ground level. The women’s waiting room, the men’s waiting room, the office, and the baggage area.
The office of the depot is still equipped with the original desk, chair, heating stove, a telephone, and parts of the telegraph.
The upstairs of the depot is where the station master and his family lived. The tour group members did not venture up the steep steps during Wednesday’s tour, as that floor is currently closed.
Gehl explained that to enhance the history of the Fulda Depot, she and her husband, Bill, had attended an auction at Dassell, Minnesota, where they bid against a gentleman from Hawaii to secure the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy caboose that has been in Fulda since 2010.
“The Fulda Heritage Society purchased the caboose from the auction of Howard K. Page, at the “Old Depot Museum,” Gehl explained. I think that every community should preserve their history. What will we be able to share with the next generations if we don’t?”
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