project date: 2010 | by susan jurasz | 2 related blog(s)

Swept along by the railroad fever of the late 1800s, investors from Chicago dream about a railroad extending from Galveston, Texas to Winnipeg, Canada. This north-south transcontinental railroad would carry freight and passengers from the winter cold to sunshine and tropical beaches on the Gulf of Mexico via a single track. Today, the Midland Continental Railroad Depot in Wimbledon, North Dakota stands as a testimony to this dream: It is the last remaining depot along this line.

In 2008, Sea Reach developed a marketing document to help solicit financing for the depot renovation. In 2010, Sea Reach was contracted to design, fabricate and install the exhibits.

Exhibits tell the railroad story and highlight a young woman who started her life-long career in music listening to the sounds of the tracks: Miss Peggy Lee. Peggy Lee (born Norma Egstrom) lived at the depot as a teenager while her father was depot agent. You walk through her living quarters upstairs, pass the window she snuck through to go on a date, and the coal stove she helped fill to keep the place warm.

The exhibits include low tech and high tech interactives. Each room is filled with silhouettes of passengers and railroad workers - for you to eavesdrop on their conversations. The conversations create an easy way to convey interesting facts about life during that period.