(Radio Iowa) – The project to restore a historic Iowa train depot will include new exhibits to show the influence of railroads on population growth and tourism. The 140-year-old depot in Spirit Lake has been home to the Dickinson County Historical Museum for five decades. Mary Drier, the museum’s curator, says the first rail line to reach the shore of Big Spirit Lake was the Burlington-Cedar Rapids-Northern Railway and it began bringing tourists to the Great Lakes region.

“That railroad also built the magnificent Orleans Hotel and the original ‘Queen’ steamboat,” she says. A different rail line then connected Spirit Lake and Spencer. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Depot opened in Spirit Lake in 1884. “Our first depot agent was a 16-year-old girl named Eva Ballou. Her father started out as the depot agent, but he was in ill health, so she took over,” Drier says. “She actually lived in a shack on the grounds while the depot was being built.” Eva’s story, along with others, will be featured in the new exhibits.

“What we’ve learned from kids visiting the depot and the museum is that kids of today don’t understand how important and vital railroads were to the early communities,” Drier says. “If a community had a railroad going through it, it would thrive. If it did not have a railroad going through it, it probably became non-existent.” A brick addition was built onto the depot in 1995 because the depot had no heat or air conditioning and could not be used year-round. Drier says the depot is now properly insulated, with a new H-VAC system in place. There’s been a 10-fold increase in visitors to the museum since 2021 and Drier credits new programming.

“That brings people in through the door and then once they’re in through that door, they come back,” Drier says. “We’ve spent the last year improving our exhibits in our exhibit hall, really focusing on the stories of the area, more than the stuff and the artifacts of the area. We make sure we all tell stories that help bring people and visitors into relationship with the history of the county.”A quarter of a million dollars has been raised so far to finance the upgrades to the museum.