Recalling rail history

The train fanatic extracted in March an old abandoned caboose from the heart of northern Minnesota’s frozen swamps.

Thompson, moved from Chisago City, Minn., to the Littlefork area when he married Trena Peterson in January 2010.

“I have heard stories of abandoned locomotives in the woods, so one of the first things I asked when I moved here just over a year ago is if there were any in the area,” Thompson said.

Much to his delight — there was.

The tip about the location of the caboose came from retired Littlefork-Big Falls teacher Dave Trappe.

“He knew about it because over the years he had done a lot of driving around looking for different history sites,” Thompson explained.

The caboose sat just off Mando’s Deer River Line, a railroad line that once ran south of Littlefork. The abandoned caboose had been resting there since 1947, after the line was torn up that summer. At the time, the Mesabi Daily News called the elimination of the line the “end of an era in rail logging history.”

The March-April 1947 edition of the Mandonian notes the line was the last remnant of Mando’s north woods network of 140 miles of main track.

The caboose was one of the last cars used on the railroad that was originally constructed to tap the forest resources of northern Minnesota and to transport them to the large pulp, paper, and saw mill operations of Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company at International Falls, the newspaper reported.

“It truly is a part of the state’s history,” Thompson said.

“The caboose was left on purpose for hunters to use,” said Thompson. “But, for the last 10 years or so, it has been in a state of disrepair. My plans now are to do a complete restoration on it.”

Why trains?

In 1966, Thompson’s father and uncle established the Ironhorse Central Railroad Museum, featuring authentic railroad cars, steam locomotives and train rides in Chisago City. Thompson grew up working at the museum and developed a deep respect for trains.

“A couple of years ago, I rescued a steam engine from a shed in Enderlen, N.D.,” Thompson said. “Nobody knew it was there and it was full of asbestos.”

Thompson said the city wanted to get rid of it, so he purchased the engine, got rid of the asbestos after he became an abator, and rebuilt the entire structure to display in his family’s museum.

When Thompson first heard of the abandoned caboose in Littlefork last year, he couldn’t wait to see if it held up well enough through the years to restore.

“It was amazing,” he said of his first glimpse of the railroad car. “It was in such good shape.”

Thompson began taking photographs — he says literally thousands — of the caboose from every angle to understand how it was built.

With his mind set on another restoration project, Thompson dove into the process of finding out what he needed to do to get permission to take over the locomotive.

Finding who and where to get that consent wasn’t easy, and took him two months.

First, he contacted the state of Minnesota and said he was shuffled back and forth talking to different people. He then contacted the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which suggested he speak to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. 

“MnDOT claimed it was the Nature Conservancy who owned the land the caboose was on,” he said. 

After finding out the Nature Conservancy didn’t own that particular piece of land, Thompson said he was back at square one. 

Finally, after more conversations with DNR officials, the state archeologist was contacted for approval and Thompson received the permit to remove the caboose. 

“I’m told that permit is next to impossible to get,” he said. “I’m lucky.”

Battling the elements

The caboose was located in an area that was a challenge to access.

“We could really only get in by four-wheelers in the summer,” Thompson said. “It was sitting in the middle of a pretty wet area. Sometimes when I’d be hiking out there with 100-150 pounds of supplies, I’d be up to my knees in water.”

Thompson carefully analyzed the structure and devised a plan to retrieve it from its resting spot of 64 years. Because it had sunk so deep into the Earth, Thompson thought he would first jack up the base, put it back on its wheels, then winch it up onto the bed of a truck.

“It was too swampy and every time I tried to put blocking in to jack it up, it sunk right back down,” he said.

Thompson decided to rule out options of pulling the caboose out of the woods during the summer and prepared to use northern Minnesota’s cold winters to his advantage and get it out when the ground froze.

Mother Nature had a different idea.

Winter’s early snowfall prevented the ground from becoming completely frozen and Thompson worried that his efforts might be a lost cause.

“It was really bad,” Thompson said of the winter. “I couldn’t get anyone to plow snow for me because the ground was still soft.”

Finally, on Feb. 17, conditions cooperated enough to allow Dobbs Logging Inc. to plow several miles toward the caboose and Thompson plowed a few miles himself.

On March 10, Thompson rented a 14-ton crane from Page & Hill Forest Products Inc. and Jan Maggert brought the crane to the caboose site. It was maneuvered onto a Roche’s Towing tractor trailer. 

“Watching the caboose leave the woods was kind of neat,” Thompson said. “It was the first time it had been down the railroad line since 1947.” 

A piece of history

Research on the caboose labeled 207 revealed it had an extensive history.

“It probably goes back to the 1880s,” Thompson said.

The list of railroads the car has worked on proves it was busy in its up-and-running days.

Although Thompson hasn’t been able to trace the first railroad the caboose followed, clues on the car lead him to guess it was part of either the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad or the Northern Pacific Railroad.

“I found an old photograph of a car used by the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad and I am pretty confident it is my caboose,” he said. “There are sliding doors on each that are in the exact same location.”

From its first railroad, the caboose was sold to the Duluth and Winnipeg Railway.

“The company went belly-up and was reorganized as the Duluth, Lake Superior and Western Railway,” Thompson noted.

After two years, it became the Eastern Railway of Minnesota, and was sold later to Duluth and Northern Minnesota Railway.

“The last company, to take over the caboose was the Minnesota Dakota and Western Railway,” Thompson said.

Future plans

From the interior framework to the outside of the caboose, Thompson is planning a complete rebuild of the locomotive.

“I have to go piece by piece when I replace things so I don’t lose where I’m at,” he said of his rebuilding efforts. “I created a pattern that I’m following.”

He envisions the outside of the rebuild to recreate how the caboose looked very early on. The inside will have seating to replicate how it looked with MD&W.

“MD&W had coach seating to transport loggers back and forth along the line,” Thompson explained.

“There is a lot of history in this area pertaining to railroads,” he added. “I want to show that history.”

In July, the caboose will be brought to Chisago City to become part of the Ironhorse Museum. It will be placed on display and possibly used for public rides around the museum’s 1.5-mile railroad track.

Thompson and his wife, Trena, plan to summer in Chisago City so he can work at the museum, which is open June through September.

Thompson picked through his binder of notes and photos from Day 1 with the caboose as he reminisced about his experience. He now looks forward to the pages he’ll fill as the rebuild begins.

“I’m very proud of this caboose,” he said smiling. “I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”