By ELIZABETH GOLLIVER
Do you like history? Do you want to be involved in restoring a historic building? Do want community service hours? Get your working clothes on and your paintbrush in hand because you can do just that right here in Tonkawa. This is a great way to get community service hours for your club, organization or class.
The Tonkawa Historical Society is restoring the Tonkawa Santa Fe train depot and is asking volunteers to help with the restoration. Volunteers can help in numerous ways. They can help by cleaning up the grounds around the building, painting, and providing refreshments to workers on workdays, sawing, hammering and providing assistance to professional workers.
The depot was built in 1899 as a 24’ X 80’ standard depot. Train cars to the depot hauled wheat, scrap metal, oilfield supplies and other merchandise. An average of 800 railroad carloads of oilfield supplies were shipped in and 120 tank cars of crude oil was shipped out each month. The freight room addition on the north end was built in 1922 because of the increase in freight coming in and out of the depot. In the 1930’s the depot became an integral part of the Three Sands Oil Field south of town. The depot shipped oil field supplies to the oil field and oil was shipped out of the depot. The depot also played an important part in the Prisoner of War camp north of town. The German prisoners were brought to and from town by train. The train brought the prisoners to town to work on local farms and ranches and at the alfalfa dryer plant in town. In 1946, the waiting room addition on the south end of the depot was added to the depot for the increase in passengers.
Through the years the depot served as a bus station, a telegraph station and a museum. Now the depot sits vacant and is threatened by deterioration. It has been placed on the 2008 Most Endangered Historical Places List by Preservation Oklahoma, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting, promoting and preserving Oklahoma’s historical and cultural landmarks.
The Santa Fe Depot Renovation Project Committee wants to make the depot an attraction to the community. Some ideas that the committee is considering are a community room, a youth education center, a dining establishment, a farmer’s market or an office space while maintaining the atmosphere of the train station.
Phase 1 of the renovation project is to preserve the structure by repairing the roof and giving the outside of the building a fresh coat of paint. It will be painted cotton yellow with dark green trim since that is the original color of the Santa Fe depot. Phase 1 is estimated to cost $50,000. The committee has already raised $20,000 through local businesses and private donors.
It is hard to imagine that before mass communications and the automobile, the only way to get telegraphs, mail, livestock and supplies to town is to have them arrive and leave via the town depot. The depot now stands as a silent reminder of an era gone by. There is still an aura about the train whistle that lingers in the memories of those who remember the good old days of the depot.
If you would like to volunteer with the project please contact the Tonkawa Historical Society, P.O. Box 27 Tonkawa, OK 74653 or the Tonkawa Chamber of Commerce at 580-628-2220.
