Columbia Southern Railroad Train Station, Wasco Oregon

The Columbia Southern Railroad Passenger Station and Freight Warehouse located at the corner of Clark and Fulton streets at the heart of Wasco, a trading center for surrounding wheat ranches of Sherman County, Oregon was completed and opened for use in 1898.

Completion of a transcontinental railroad along the Columbia River in the 1880s provided ranchers with access to national markets. Reaching rails along the Columbia, however, still required stock drives or wagon treks from the uplands of the interior. Only after short line railroads financed by the region's ranchers penetrated the canyons to the south did wheat, cattle, and wool production in Eastern Oregon reach its full potential.

Construction of the Columbia Southern Railroad was begun at Biggs, on the Columbia, in 1897, and the first seven miles of track were completed to Wasco in the same year, thus signaling the growth of population and economic development of Sherman County. Although the short line was eclipsed as a route to the interior upon completion of the Oregon Trunk Railway in 1911, the Columbia Southern continued to serve local shipping until the advent of motor freight. Passenger service and under-carload shipments were discontinued in 1936. In 1964 all service was halted in the winter flood that badly damaged the line between Biggs and Wasco. The line was abandoned in 1966. Today, the station at Wasco is the only architectural feature remaining in the region to illustrate the history of the short line that contributed so much to Sherman County economy and to the economy of neighboring Wasco County.

The Columbia Southern tracks bisected the town's compass-oriented grid layout on the diagonal, northwest to southeast, truncating the double lot of the station site at its southwest corner. The station is readily identifiable as a functional type even though the rail right of way is abandoned and the tracks are no longer in evidence. It is very little altered from its original appearance. Even the trackside loading platform is in place on the west elevation, though lacking its steps from grade level.

The station is a vernacular wood frame building clad with shiplap siding. The 30 x 22-foot core is a gable-roofed volume, two stories in height to contain upstairs living quarters for the depot agent. The interior is finished with horizontal tongue and groove wall boards and simple trim elements. The exterior is characterized by boxed eaves and raked frieze boards; plain corner boards and door and window surrounds. Wall penetrations are somewhat irregularly spaced, and window openings typically are fitted with double-hung sash having one-over-one lights. Two brick stove chimneys straddle the roof ridge at the center. At the northerly end of the core, a single-story freight wing extends the main axis by 40 feet. Sliding freight doors are centered in its easterly and westerly side elevations.

Columbia Southern Railroad

The high Columbia Plateau east of Oregon's Cascade Range receives modest rainfall and has a thin soil structure more suitable for ranching than for crop production. The discovery of gold in eastern Oregon early in the 1860s stimulated the early stock-raising industry, as ranchers found a market among the thousands of miners streaming to Canyon City and Auburn. By the 1880s, ranchers had access to national markets via main line railroad along the Columbia River. Long and arduous stock drives and wagon treks from interior points ended when short-line railroads financed by the region's ranchers and bankers were constructed to feed the transcontinental network. The Columbia Southern Railroad was among the last of the short lines to be put into operation.

Construction of the Columbia Southern Railroad was begun in 1897 at Biggs on the Columbia River and in two years' time had progressed through Sherman County. Work on the last stretch into Shaniko in Wasco County, the adjoining county to the west, was completed in 1900. The first seven miles of track were completed to Wasco in October 1897, and signaled the beginning of development in Sherman County. Shaniko was the southern terminus of the Columbia Southern line. It was chosen because of its strategic location at the site of springs at the top of two canyons giving access to the plains of the interior. On completion of the Columbia Southern to that point early in 1900, Shaniko was transformed into one of the major wool shipping points of the West.

After being in service on the full extent of its trackage for slightly over a decade, the Columbia Southern was superseded in importance by the Oregon Trunk Railway, completed to Bend in 1911. The latter was the result of a prolonged railroad-building race between James Jerome Hill of the Great Northern, the winner, and E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific. The new rail line lay across the wheat country of Sherman County, dropped down into the canyon of the Deschutes, a tributary of the Columbia, and eventually connected the Columbia River transportation routes to central Oregon points as far south as Klamath Falls near the California border.

Although the Columbia Southern was eclipsed as a route to the interior, it continued to serve local shipping until the advent of motor freight. Passenger service and under carload shipments were discontinued in 1936. In 1964 all service was halted in the winter flood that badly damaged the line between Biggs and Wasco. The line was abandoned in 1966.

The following notes were taken from the book "The Golden Land" by Giles French and the book "Rails to Mid Columbia Wheat Land" by John F. Due & Giles French. Giles French was the editor of the Sherman County Journal from 1931 to 1963.

On March 4th, 1897, Mr. E.E. Lytle, Drake C. O'Rielyand, and J.M. Murchie filed incorporation papers; the Columbia Southern Railroad was on its way. The purpose was to tap the area of Central Oregon. Wheat was fast becoming the major crop in Sherman County. The railroad had influence on the development of central Oregon. Construction started in June of 1897. The grading of the roadbed was done with teams of horses and slip scrappers borrowed from farmers that wanted to help. On October 4, 1897, seven miles of track were completed and Engineer Spear pulled the first engine and freight or baggage car into Wasco.

This was a great day for Wasco. There was now a railroad here. A big celebration was held; girls in gay dresses, matrons in proper attire, prominent citizens with stuffed vests and cigars held high shouted their happiness. Wasco was going to be a city. A metropolis and the center of industrial and agricultural activity. It was reported that 200,000 sacks of wheat were stored along the tracks in Wasco ready to be shipped. The railroad was extended on to the south and reached Shanike May 3, 1900.

When the railroad reached Wasco it was the start of future development in Sherman County. The dream that the railroad would extend to Central Oregon never did develop for the reason that two large canyons to the south were very deep. The balance of Sherman County profited because of the railroad. Crops could be shipped by rail where before everything had to be taken to the Columbia River by team and wagon; cattle were driven overland. The railroad was the reason that Shaniko became the wool shipping center and a world marketplace. At one point in time there were 31 warehouses with an average storage capacity of 40,000 bushels along the line of the Columbia Southern Railroad. The population of Sherman County increased from 1,792 persons in 1890 to 3,477 in 1900. and to 4,242 in 1910.

Passenger service and less than carload shipments were discontinued in 1936. Carload shipments of wheat and cattle continued on call from The Dalles. All service stopped due to the big flood in December of 1964. The line was badly damaged between Wasco and Biggs Junction. Approximately four miles of the track and roadbed completely vanished. The lines were never repaired and used again. The line was abandoned in 1966 and what few cars were left were hauled out by truck to the main line at Biggs Junction.

Building Description

The depot and warehouse is located on Lots 1 & 2 on the northeast corner of Block 6, corner of Clark and Fulton Streets, City of Wasco, Biggs Addition, Sherman County, State of Oregon. The building is aligned with the track, or rails, where the rails entered the block from Fulton Street Lot 4, and exited on Clark Street on Lots 11 & 12 in a southeasterly direction.

The building is all wood construction. The foundation is post and block. The depot is a two-story building with living quarters on the upper floor for the depot agent and his family. The warehouse is on the west end joining the depot and is one story, with the floor elevated enough that it was on a level With the freight and baggage cars. A piece of sheet metal could be laid across from the dock to the baggage car and freight could be wheeled across to the warehouse.

The overall length of the building is seventy feet. The warehouse part is forty feet long and thirty feet wide. The depot is thirty feet long and in line with the south or track side of the warehouse. The depot is twenty-two feet wide and two stories high with living quarters on the upper level. A deck or porch on the north side makes an entrance to the office and another door to the stairway.

The outside of the building is covered with lumber known as drop siding, so made, the lower edge of the beard is 3/4 inch thick and has a grove cut on the back side so it will lap over the board below. The face side of the board was planed down to a 3/8 inch thickness at the top edge and was sloped out to full size about one and one-half inches from the top side. The underside was generally left in the rough and this rough surface gave the carpenters many slivers. The inside of the building is covered with what is known as ceiling board. It is 3/4 of an inch thick and has a grove milled in the center and another one near the top edge. A grove cut in the bottom edge matches a ridge cut on the top edge, so the board fit together very tightly and makes a good seal.

The ceilings were covered with cheesecloth and then papered over. This paper and cloth stops dust from leaking through the joints; the walls were painted.

There is no insulation anyplace in the building. The framing in the depot is two by four studs, planed on two sides (edges) so that the walls were of uniform thickness, the sides were left in the rough.

The depot was divided as follows: the room on the east end lower floor 13x21 feet is the passenger waiting room, with doors to the street on the north one to the south to the loading area or track side. Another door to the office area. Two windows on the east side. The office size 16x21 has two windows on the south and overlooks the track, one window and a door on the north side goes to the porch and to the street; this porch or deck is 6x10 feet ad also makes access to the loading dock on the north side of the Warehouse. A door up three steps goes to the warehouse inside. Another door to the stairway to the living space upstairs.

The room on the right of the stairs upper level is the kitchen 12x10. There are cabinets along the south and west walls, on the west walls are both upper and lower cabinets and fitted with a cast iron sink and drain board that has sustained the many years of use without cracking. Three small windows look to the south over the track.

Cooking was done on a cast iron range attached to a flue from the office room below and cut the ridge of the roof. The building was heated with coal for many years before the use of oil became popular. A room 10x10 on the west side of the kitchen was used as storage and pantry for many years. A box covered with fly screen extended from a window overlooking the warehouse and was used as a cooler. The box was used to store milk, eggs, and other foods. It was cooler in the warehouse than in the apartment. This type of cooler was found in many homes before the refrigerator came into use.

This pantry room was later converted to a bathroom. A big fire burned much of the city so a sewage and water system was built in 1902.

The room to the left of the stairs is the living room 12x21 feet and has four windows, two to the east and one each north and south. It was heated by a pot-bellied stove attached to a flue from the Waiting room below and out the peak of the roof making two flues on the roof about six feet apart. On the west and to the north side is an archway to a dining room. This room is 16x8 feet and has a door to the kitchen, a bedroom to the west and a door to a room that was built on later and used as a bedroom when the station agent had an increase in the family. The dining room has small windows on the north wall. A door from here to a bedroom 10x14 feet extends out over the warehouse has one window that looks into the warehouse and the attic over the warehouse. A clothes closet or press on the north wall is 10x4, the bedroom that was added later extends out over the porch below and has windows on the north and east side. The roof is straight line gable and in two elevations. The roof on the depot is about three feet higher than the roof of the warehouse.

The most outstanding feature of this building is the roof gutters. They are built into the roof, starting at one end of the building and up from the bottom edge, two pieces of lumber were nailed into a vee shape and fastened to the roof to make a ridge or trough. The roofing starting at the peak of the root extended down into the trough up over the ridge and onto the bottom of the roof. The water would run along this trough and to the end of the building and into a pipe and to the ground. The warehouse had a loading dock all around the warehouse. After 1936 when there was no more shipping from the depot the dock on the south or track side was reduced in size, to six feet wide and twenty feet in length. The loading dock on the north side and west side to center of the building are the original.