Wimbledon Community Museum recieves grant

The Wimbledon Community Museum has received a contribution from the Rural Development Finance Corporation’s one-time grant program through Cass County Electric Cooperative.

These funds will be used to complete the restoration of the only remaining Midland Continental Railroad Depot in North Dakota for use as the Midland Continental Depot Transportation Museum.

The grand plan for the Midland Continental was a north-south transcontinental railway linking grain markets of Winnipeg, Manitoba and the port town of Galveston, Texas.

The 67-mile short line railroad, built from 1909-1913 connecting Edgeley, Jamestown and Wimbledon, was all that was built.

After a disastrous spring flood in 1969 dealt more than $200,000 in damage to rail beds and bridges, both the Soo Line (now Canadian Pacific) and Burlington Northern (now Burlington Northern Santa Fe) picked up small stretches of the line and the Midland Continental railroad was abandoned.

The museum will also document the life of singer-songwriter Peggy Lee who lived and worked at the depot from 1934-1937 while her father served as the station master.

This facility will serve as a visitor attraction and have a positive economic impact on the community. Several contributors have assisted with the more than $275,000 total project.

Cass County Electric provided the assistance of Bobby Koepplin, Manager of Rural development based in Valley City, N.D., to serve as the project manager for development of drawings, bid documents, managing contractors and providing grant administration.

The Rural Development Finance Corporation is pleased to offer these one-time grants to community projects in North Dakota communities with populations under 5,000 through its members — all sixteen North Dakota Rural Electric Cooperatives and nine of the North Dakota Rural Telecommunications Cooperatives.

Tags: diversions, museum, grant