Scott Swanson
With groundbreaking at the future Bi-Mart site waiting to happen, local logging contractors provided the proverbial muscle to get the historic railroad depot off the property behind McDonald’s restaurant Sunday morning.
Mike Melcher, Scott Melcher and Jim Cota of Timber Harvesting Inc. rigged up a frame made of logs and used a large D-8-sized bulldozer to skid the building off the property and onto county-owned property behind the old mill, where it will be cleaned before being moved to the city maintenance yard on 24th Avenue, said Pat Wood, city public works superintendent.
The depot, which in recent years has been owned by Ben Dahlenburg, Bob Waibel and the late John Slauson, was located on property just north of McDonald’s in the 2000 block of Main Street. In the late 1930s and ‘40s it sat further south, where McDonald’s is now. The railroad had two spurs that came together there and ran southwest toward Holley. The trains would turn around using the switches at the intersection.
The depot was moved north by Dahlenburg, Waibel and Slauson some 20 years ago when McDonald’s was built
Over the years, various individuals have expressed interest in preserving the depot, suggesting such uses as using it as a tourist center or railroad museum. Thus far, none has come to fruition.
Meanwhile, Bi-Mart purchased the property last spring to build a store in Sweet Home, and when that happened, Wood decided that he could pull the old depot some four blocks across county property to the Public Works maintenance yard.
Wood said he was told Bi-Mart was ready to break ground, so “I called Mike (Melcher) and told him, ‘I need help,’” he said.
Early Sunday morning, Melcher used the dozer to create a temporary road off the property onto the county’s property northeast of the Bi-Mart site, along the railroad tracks.
Melcher said he and Cota built the frame to provide support for the depot structure.
They chained the structure to the frame and it held firm as he used the dozer to drag it to an asphalt apron where it will be pressure washed. Wood said he will use the city street sweeper to sweep up after job is finished and the depot is dragged to the city property on 24th Avenue.
He said he was highly appreciative for the help he got from THI.
“I don’t know what I would have done if Mike hadn’t stepped in, with the price of renting that equipment,” he said.
“It really shows what happens when you get people together who want to do something.”