During its prime in the early 1900s, the Wells Depot was a meeting place for the community. Wells residents hope the Depot will soon be a common meeting place as renovations continue to restore the Depot and open it as a museum.

Larson Contracting Inc. crews are working to restore the Depot with a goal to complete the construction by December.

The Depot was built in 1903 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Wells Historical Society was formed in the 1980s but had discontinued. The group formed again to save the Depot. Wells Historical Society Board member Jim Ramaker said they started with a $300 budget left over from the Historical Society. The group now has a membership of about 50 people, but Ramaker said they want to expand that once the museum is open as more volunteers will likely be needed to staff the museum.

So far the public response has been positive, Ramaker said.

“It’s been positive, but my feeling is it won’t really be positive until they see it. In its rough stages it doesn’t excite people, but I’m excited,” Ramaker said.

Through fundraisers like pancake breakfasts and selling stoneware items, the Wells Historical Society has been raising the money for the project.

Another key fundraiser has been selling DVDs of “A Common Feeling,” an original Wells musical performed in the 1970s.

One of the defining features of the Depot is the witch hat style roof. Cedar shingles are currently being put on the roof. They were chosen because that’s what was originally on the building.

Construction crews narrowly avoided a sticky situation recently. The shingles have to be spaced because they expand and contract with moisture. If they’re not spaced, the shingles could buckle when they expand. Construction crews hadn’t been spacing the shingles, but luckily the crews caught it shortly after work on the roof began because it rained.

Some of the original doors and woodwork is still in place, though some of the doors have been removed during the construction process.

The Depot also has original hardwood floors, though they’ve been covered with a protective sheet so the flooring isn’t damaged during construction.

The original ticket window is still in place, as is the original freight scale, which was restored recently.

The brick at some of the building’s corners are being restored after sustaining damage and wear over the years. New glass will be installed where needed, and crews are painting the overhang of the roof a light grey color.

‘A Common Feeling’

The Wells Depot serves an important historic role to many in the community.

“At one point, really before my time, it was a gathering place,” said Ken Stensrud, who worked at the Wells Depot as a telegraph operator for the Milwaukee Railroad in the 1960s. He’s also involved with the Wells Historical Society.

Before automobiles became more prevalent, the Depot served as a key transportation point in the community. Many people boarded passenger cars for trips to nearby Fairmont and Mankato.

The east end of the building used to be the waiting room for the passenger cars. At the west end of the building is the freight area. The telegraph operator and the ticket window were stationed near the center of the building.

By the 1960s when Stensrud worked at the Depot, there was still some passenger traffic, but much of the depot was dedicated to freight. He said they used to ship out grain year round from the Depot, and during the fall, they’d ship 20-30 cars of sugar beets out each day.

Ramaker, a retired Wells music teacher, said one of the biggest reasons he became involved in saving and restoring the Depot was because of his involvement with “A Common Feeling.” The original musical about the history of Wells was performed in the Wells High School auditorium March 9, 10 and 11, 1978.

The story is a fictional tale based on former Wells resident Harry Gillam and based in 1917. Gillam was involved in many bands and musical acts in Wells. He and his bands used to play at the Depot to meet trains on holidays and special occasions.

“Wells is here because of the train,” Ramaker said.

Around 2005, the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern Railroad planned to demolish the Wells Depot and build a storage facility. After securing other land for the storage building, the railroad sold the depot to the Wells Historical Society for $1.

Building on a $1 investment

Some artifacts have been donated to the historical society already, and other residents plan to donate some items but want to see the museum first.

“This is not going to be just a railroad museum,” Stensrud said. “It’ll be a museum made out of a depot and there’ll be a lot of other things, too.”

Stensrud said he hopes to find telegraph equipment to display in the depot that he could then use during special events like Kernel Days.

“On Kernel days and the Fourth of July, those kind of things when we have an open house, I want to sit there and send telegraphs. I’ve still got my old lightning bug as they called it,” Stensrud said. The telegraph signals wouldn’t go anywhere, but he said it’d be a good learning experience for people to see and hear the messages being sent.

Much of the original telegraph equipment was sold, Stensrud said

Stensrud’s wife worked as a librarian at the Wells Library, and he said she used to take in some historical items when she worked there, including an old Norwegian ax.

Stensrud said he took a truck load of items to other historical societies after his father died in the 1960s, and he said he wish he’d had a place to bring them to in Wells.

The museum could also feature recordings made by the historical society. These are both video and audio recordings and are of conversations with local residents about the history of the town. Wells Historical Society Board member Carmen Meyer said the recordings could be used for special events, for genealogy inquiries and by other interested parties.

“It will be an evolving project because we have a lot of things coming in yet,” Meyer said.

The historical society has received a number of grants to help fund the project. Meyer said they’ve applied for a grant to receive display cases, but they haven’t heard if they received the grant or not yet.

The grants stipulate that construction on the depot needs to be completed by December, and there could be an event held at the depot over New Years. A grand opening could be held sometime in the spring.

Aside from displays of the different items, there will likely be a meeting area somewhere in the museum.

The door that will likely be the main entrance to the depot faces operating tracks, but Meyer said a safety fence will be installed.

“It’s really exciting to see it get this far, but then it’s scary because it’s the future that is unknown — how we’re going to make the most of it. One step at a time,” Meyer said.