When I drive into a town doing research on my travel guides, one of my first stops is the old train depot. I've got this crack pot theory that the spirit of a town is reflected in how it treats its old depot. When train travel was the norm decades ago, the station was the first building most travelers saw, and that their reaction to it determined how they viewed the community. Some stations are elaborate brick or stone structures, while others were of wood. The old Ironwood station, left, is now used by the chamber of commerce and there's a small museum. Although I don't remember it much, I must have been here in the early 1950s when I visited relatives in Ironwood. My mother and I took the train from Detroit, which passed through Chicago first. My childhood memories are hazy, but I remember seeing many box cars filled with iron ore from the nearby mines. I hope Ironwood takes care of the old station, as I'm sure others have memories of it when it was thriving.
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