“Crown Kids” Visit the Depot Museum on June 9, 2023

On June 9, seventeen “Crown Kids” from Covenant Church program, their teacher and assistants came to visit the Depot Museum. Jim and Carol Clark and Barb and Jim Stout ushered the children through the four rooms of the museum. The children signed their names in the visitors log in the Women’s Waiting Room where a video of trains was playing. Some of them sat in a seat that was from a caboose. One small boy asked, “Where are the trains we can play with?”

In the larger Waiting Room the kids enjoyed watching one model train going around buildings and another train traveling between two rooms. The biggest draw in the Waiting Room was (and always is) the phone booth which came from this depot and was donated back for display.

In the Office the children saw a picture of two of the men who had worked there. The picture shows them sitting as their desks faced each other the same way the desks are sitting today. They saw the telegraph, asked about an old typewriter and inspected a coal-burning stove.

The fourth and final room, the Freight Room, held their interest wherever they looked. Trains were running on four different levels, and the scenery was inspected, asked about and occasionally touched. For the most part they were able to control their desire to play with things. Before leaving each child rang the bell located at the back of the baggage cart in the Freight Room.

They gave a big, “Thank you!” before leaving for a quick picture under the porch and making a dash through the rain with their drivers to their vehicles! Thank you, kids for coming to the Depot Museum.