Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Depot Celebrates 85th Birthday

Prescott's old Missouri Pacific Railroad depot turns 85 years old this month. It has been the Depot Museum for 20 years, with tourists coming from across the nation to visit.

In 1969, following the 1965 shutdown of railroad passenger service, the city of Prescott acquired title to the depot. The city also acquired a 99-year lease on 441 feet of ground occupied by the depot and the adjacent parking areas.

The original plans were to convert the building to city offices and a courtroom. The noise of passing trains soon ended this plan.

Briefly, there was an adult education class held in the south waiting room. The noise soon ended this project as well.

From 1969 until 1972 part of the building was rented to local businesses as a warehouse.

The city and county centennial celebration during the summer of 1972 changed the future of the depot. Headquarters for the celebration were established at the depot.

Maxine Covington installed the `Short Branch Saloon' in the center hallway of the building, and George Ivey built a complete replica of a pioneer cabin in the north waiting room. This exhibit was complete with a cooking fireplace, trestle table and string bed. It was Ivey's display that proved to a number of people what could be done with the Depot.

An important part of the centiennial celebration was the train ride, complete with the `great train robbery' furnished by Potlatch and the P&NW Railroad.

Charles Yarbrough worked to establish a state park designation for the Prairie DeAnn Battlefield. The depot would be part of this project, serving as headquarters for the park development.

Yarbrough and others managed for the Chamber of Commerce office to be moved to the depot, providing personnel to keep the building open to the public.

That year, 1976, marked the beginning of the museum.

There was only a small exhibit in the north waiting room. Many people took an interest in preserving the history of the area and many items of interest poured in.

Application was made to the National Register of Historic Sites in 1977, and the depot was awarded historic site designation in November of 1978. Prescott was one of the first abandoned train stations in Arkansas to be so designated.

Here is a list of names of people who worked so hard to get the museum going: Charles and Pam Yarbrough, Nancy Russell, Nancy Worthington, Norman and Dorothy Whitaker, Margaret Pemberton, Bernice Berryman, Mary Joe Hamilton, Frances Thrasher, Wanda Stevens, Jan Stroud, John Teeter and Kay Wren.

Material has poured in from people all over the county. The office and north and south waiting rooms are now crowded with over 2,000 items, 2,400 old photographs, family histories, church and school histories, cemetery records, railroad memorabelia, and Battle of Prairie De Ann artifacts.

This year the Depot Museum is expanding into the south half of the building. This work should be complete by the end of 1996.

On Sunday afternoon, May 25, 1979, the official national register designation was held. Jack Doss of the Arkansas Cultural and Historical Commission made the presentation speech. Lt. Gov. Joe Purcell was the principle speaker. Over 200 people attended this ceremony held under the north portico of the Depot.

Preparing for the 21st Century, Bill Taylor, Eddie Daniel and Danny Stewart arranged the purchase of a Gateway 2000 computer system. All the museum's records, inventory and information are being computerized. Martha Smith and Jo DeWoody are computer operators. When this work is completed the museum will also be on the internet.

As of June 10 the museum has had 400 visitors this year from 14 states and three foreign countries. Teeter, who runs the museum without pay, considers this an outstanding number of people since the museum has no advertising program to promote it.

#"Much has been accomplished toward preserving local history during the 20 years the museum has been here," Teeter says. #"We will do much more during the next twenty years.

#"Anything we write or say about the museum concludes with the statement that we could not operate 30 days without the complete support we receive from the city of Prescott," Teeter says matter-of-factly. #"If anything breaks that we can't fix someone from the city always helps. Pepper Young and his crew keep the grass cut and the grounds clean. The city keeps the lights burning and the water running.

#"Visit your museum," he encourages.