Sunday, December 18, 2016

Cherry, IL: Milwaukee Depot

Matt Overstake posted a couple of photos. I was surprised that he posted in the "Milwaukee Road In Indiana" group because Cherry, IL is about half way across Illinois towards Iowa. I have heard of the Cherry Mine having a disaster, but I have yet to research it. (Update: "Harold J. Krewer The infamous mine at Cherry, IL (where 259 miners died in a 1909 fire)")

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Cherry, IL was about half way up on the subbranch between Ladd and St. Paul Mine. Below is an overview of Ladd and a closeup of the wye where the Ladd-St. Paul Mine subbranch went north from the main branch that went south to Oglesby and north to Mendota, Rochelle, Davis Junction and beyond. It is easy to follow the subbranch RoW straight north to Cherry. It is not easy to figure out where it went north of Cherry and where St. Paul Mine was.

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP, Ladd, IL

A closeup of the north side of Ladd

Jack Rooney posted
I am originally from Cherry, Illinois...site of great 1909 mine disaster. The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railroad established Cherry specifically to provide goal for their line. Here is a photo of the depot at Cherry.....kind of unique with those two doors at the end. Know that Olgesby, IL and Gratiot, WI also had same depot. Wondered if anyone has ever seen another somewhere?
Trenton Dominy: The depot location is now a modern day house.
David Hochstetter: Looks like a big station for such small town.
Jack Rooney: David Hochstetter True, I went to Gratiot just to see it....I paced it off and it was like 30 feet wide and 90 feet long. It was said that the thought was that Cherry would grow to be large.....but the coal industry went the other direction just ten years later. I don't remember the depot in Cherry. An old timer in Cherry told me when I was a kid something like "there isn't a house in Cherry that doesn't have a few boards from the depot in it."

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