Winifred Montana. An aging Train Depot once buzzing with activity is now controlled by the Central Montana Coop. According to Paul Seilstad, Cenex States Manager for the Coop, "The depot is still in sound conditon despite broken windows and boards nailed over windows and even with its ragged appearance and the roof doesn't leak." But the depot's hardwood floors and interior are most certainly showing signs of wear. Says Helen Koffler, the Milwaukee Freight Manager's wife (1946-1950), "Fifty years ago the living areas were well kept up. My small children Mike, Cindy, and Mona put a lot of miles on those floors".
For many years the depot floors creaked in solitude as temperatures fluctuated dramatically with the changing seasons. The empty rooms, barren for decades, are now stocked with farming chemicals, fertilizers, feed, seed, fencing materials, batteries, and other farm products. The outside of the depot is unceremoniously decorated with small tan colored cannisters and stacks of pallets appear on one side, in stark contrast to those erstwhile days of spit and shine.
Many events resurface in this writer's memory from those days, like the time I was playing with some metal washers I'd found. Somehow one of the washers became stuck on one of my fingers. My whinning and frustration was noticed by a man who came into the living room of the depot with pliers and some other tools! Fortunately, my mother applied some "Crisco" shortening to my finger and slipped the washer off.