About SideTracked Caches
This cache belongs to the SideTracked series. It is not designed to take you to a magical place with a breathtaking view. It's a distraction for the weary traveler, but anyone else can go and find it, too. More Information can be found at the SideTracked Website.
This cache also qualifies for the Disappearing RR Blues bonus cache. This series highlights the railways of NW Oregon.
About The Monroe Depot
Welcome to Monroe. The old Monroe Railroad Freight Depot is now part of the Monroe Public Library. Let's dive into its history.
About Monroe
The town of Monroe started as White's Mill in 1863, which was named after the sawmill that was opened by Joseph White in 1862. Just north of the mill, Rowland B Hinton settled on a land claim in 1846 and established Starrs Point, named after a local storekeeper, George Starr. 1857, the two communities merged, and the town was named after US President James Monroe. The first high school opened in 1859 with modest tuition, and students would pay extra if they needed room and board. The post office opened sometime in the 1860s. Monroe quickly became a hub of commerce, shipping lumber, produce, and grain via the Long Tom River to the Willamette River and points beyond. At one point, Monroe was one of the largest cities in the state, with “five gas stations, four grocers, three automobile dealers, a pool hall, a hotel, and several restaurants”. The city was incorporated in 1914.
About the railroad.
There were plans back in 1866 to build a rail line from Corvallis to Eugene. The Westside line, as later the line from Portland to Corvallis line was called, was supposed to link up with the Oregon & California Railroad at Junction City, hence the city's name. But that never came to pass. Today, Junction City is where Route 99E and 99W join to form Highway 99 to Eugene, so it still is a junction, but not for trains.
The Corvallis and Alsea River Railway was formed in 1907, and by 1908, it had reached Alpine Junction (north of Monroe), then turned westward, and in 1909, it reached Glenbrook. The railroad was not well financed, but it managed to reach Monroe and Dawson in 1910 but quickly fell into disrepair. It was sold to the Portland, Eugene & Eastern Railroad, which had high hopes of an electrified interurban railway from Portland to San Francisco. The PE&E extended the line south from Monroe to a place called Transfer, just to the west of Eugene in 1913, where it connected to the Willamette Pacific Railroad, linking Eugene to Coos Bay. The PE&E also owned the Eugene streetcar system, extending the streetcar from downtown Eugene to Transfer in 1913.
In 1915, the Southern Pacific Railroad purchased the PE&E with hopes of extending their Red Electric Interurban Line, which ran from Portland to Corvallis, on down to Eugene, to compete with the Oregon Electric Railway, which had electric interurban service from Portland to Eugene since 1912. Unfortunately, wires were never strung over the tracks, but the SP did run passenger trains, which stopped at Monroe, linking Monroe to Eugene and Corvallis. However, the Red Electric service from Portland to Corvallis quit in 1929. Thus, passenger traffic south from Corvallis to Monroe and Eugene also declined. By 1930, the SP abandoned the line between Cheshire (about 10 miles south of Monroe) to Transfer, ending all Eugene service. By 1958, the track south of Monroe to Cheshire was also abandoned, and the rails were pulled up. Trains still ran from Corvallis to the lumber mill in Dawson into the early 2000s, with track in Monroe in place, but there were no customers. Union Pacific absorbed the Southern Pacific in the 1990s, and the line to Monroe/Dawson was under a lease agreement by the Willamette & Pacific Railroad to run the trains on the line. The W&P stopped service on the line in 2007 due to multiple derailments. The line was later abandoned, and tracks were pulled up. In 2014, Benton County bought the right-of-way for possible reuse, most likely a biking trail, not for rail use.
The Monroe Passenger Rail Depot opened in 1915, after passenger service quit, ti was still used by railroad crews until 1960, and was torn down a few years later. The freight depot, now part of the library, dates back to 1913. The railroad had long stopped using it by the late 1990s and was looking forlorn. Benton County and the community of Monroe had the idea to use the last original train depot in Benton County as part of an expanded library and community center. The depot was used as a warehouse for Wilbur-Ellis, a farm supplier. The company announced in 2006 that they wanted to raze the building to build a new warehouse. Benton County quickly got together with the community to save the depot. On March 11, 2007, the depot was moved from the Wilbur-Ellis property to Ash Street and Hwy 99 across the street from Monroe High School. It took a lot of effort, but the Monroe Community Library opened in May 2013 after a lot of community support to raise the funds to create the beautiful building you see today.
The cache is nothing special, but the history is.
Sources:
- Oregon State University Library Special Collections Local history online archives
- Southern Pacific in Oregon by Tom Dill and Ed Austin.
- Corvallis Gazette-Times