Railroad photos and artifacts fill the foyer and living room at Gwen Lewis’s home. A four-sided lantern with a different color glass on each side, once used at rail switches, marks the way from the foyer to the living room. Lewis’s private tribute to De Soto’s railroad history reflects the public memorial not too far away.   Her family’s involvement in the railroad and the community that grew around the depot now spans three generations.  Lewis’s grandfather, Pleasant Hugh Maness, her uncles, Everett “Bad Eye” Maness and George “Tincy” Maness, and her father, Earl Lank Lewis, all worked for the railroad, and now she serves as Vice President for the De Soto Railroad Employees’ Memorial.

The first passenger train passed through De Soto in 1857, and in 1858, city founders Thomas Fletcher and James Rankin petitioned for a depot.  Over the next 20 years a freight office, a 16-stall roundhouse and a locomotive shop were constructed.  One of the unique things about De Soto’s railroad depot is that at one time it hosted three railroads – the St. Louis Iron Mountain, Southern Railroad, and Missouri Pacific Railroad, which was purchased by Union Pacific in 1982. With more than 300 employees, Union Pacific’s De Soto Car Shop is still one of De Soto’s largest employers, and the company’s largest of only two freight car shops.  All of UP’s freight cars go to either De Soto, MO or Palestine, TX for major repairs and rebuilding. 

The De Soto Railroad Employees Memorial features a collection of large artifacts in a park-like setting with history plaques, park benches, pathways paved with engraved bricks and stones, trees, and three flags.  According to Lewis, the memorial grew from its founders’ original plans – a simple statue depicting a railroad man in overalls with a lunch pail. 

Lewis credits Cathy Roop, the board’s president, with getting the ball rolling, and the City of De Soto, the Carman’s associations, Union Pacific, and many corporate and individual sponsors, contributors and volunteers with expanding the scope of the project.  A group of residents originally met in Roop’s living room to plan the project, hoping to find a place for a statue along Main St. 

Roop found her inspiration during a 1997 visit to Puyallup, WA, where she attended her great-niece’s wedding.  “We visited a small town near there, which was an old mining town,” she says.  “They had a statue of a miner with the names of the workers in a semi-circle behind the statue.  I thought at the time, why could we not do this for the railroad workers of De Soto.  I not only wanted to honor these men and women, but also maybe bring tourists to De Soto.”

Roop sought help from a group of railroad retirees that met monthly for coffee.  Six of the men agreed to put together a list of past and retired employees and several of their wives joined the group.  Roop compiled a database with more than 2000 contacts.  They elected a board of directors on August 16, 2001 and adopted by-laws a month later.

They sought sponsorship from local businesses, and Lewis admires those early sponsors for their leap of faith.  “It’s very difficult to give money to something that you don’t see,” she says. 

The group wasn’t excited when they first looked at the location across from the tracks on Fountain City Road.  They had all set their sights on Main Street, but eventually they realized the benefits and appropriateness of the spot.  The property belonged to Union Pacific Railroad, and the board acquired it on a 99-year $1 lease in March of 2004. 

The City of De Soto wanted to see a playground, and even though the group had other things in mind, they set aside space to eventually incorporate it into the memorial.  Lewis says that the city has been supportive.  “They have worked with us in every way shape and form.” 

With the city’s support and with funds and space to create a larger memorial than they originally planned, the board worked with various artists to design the memorial.  According to Lewis, Maxine Jinkerson, whose husband, Marvin is on the board, created a sketch that reflected elements of the town’s hills in the memorial, and the design resonated well with the board. 

In addition to the board’s planned expansion, several gifts found their way to the memorial.  The American Legion donated a boulder that used to sit on Main Street, and lights and cross bucks have been installed on it.  Union Pacific donated the flag plaza with the U.S. flag, Missouri State flag, and UP flag. 

Todd Mahn, owner-operator of Mahn Funeral Homes in De Soto and Festus played a key role in the memorial’s acquisition of the caboose.  The caboose once occupied De Soto’s Spross Park, and more recently it sat in front of the Arlington Hotel.  Accessibility had left the caboose heavily vandalized, according to Lewis. 

“It was pretty dilapidated,” says Mahn, who acquired the caboose from the Arlington after he heard that they wanted it removed.  Mahn considered moving the caboose to Peaceful Ridge Cemetery, until committee members contacted him about moving it to the memorial instead. 

Mahn says that Jim Ross, now retired Director of the De Soto Car Shop, helped with restoring and moving the caboose.  Moving a caboose requires special equipment and Ross contacted Mahn once the equipment became available.  D&S Fencing Co. donated the black wrought iron fence to match the fence along Main Street. 

“I’m glad that it has been restored,” Mahn says.  “It’s nice to look out the window of the funeral home and see it.”  Mahn recently restored the old Texaco station on Main Street and would like to see additional historical features and restorations in the city, such as a replica train depot that could be used as offices, and restoration of the Melba Theatre. 

According to Lewis, once the memorial took shape, the city, impressed with the quiet dignity of the monument, lifted its request for the playground. 

The way the plans for the memorial grew from their simple original concept seems to mimic the way the town’s relationship with the railroad did.  Since the first train’s trip through De Soto a century-and-a-half ago, the town’s history and the activities of the railroad are inseparable, with both meeting many of each others’ needs.  Soldiers stopped in the town during the Civil War, and De Soto sent its own soldiers to WWI and WWII on the trains.  While the railroad brought jobs and business to De Soto, the town offered important resources, most notably, water.

Why was water such a big deal?  Until the late 1950’s when the last of the steam engines were retired, trains stopped to re-water roughly every 40 miles.  De Soto offered the right distance from St. Louis and at the time the town was known for its artesian wells.  Long before Evian made its way to the US market, De Soto’s water was bottled and sold at the 1904 World’s Fair.  As passenger trains approached De Soto conductors would announce, “Fountain City - next stop!” 

This announcement lent inspiration to Lewis and Debra Wilson when they wrote the history panels for the monument.  The first panel concludes:

May this monument serve as an echo of the familiar cry, “Fountain City – next stop” and testify to the pride and dedication of the railroad employees who devoted themselves to the preservation of the American Dream.  Let the journey that began with the first passenger train continue to lead our community into the future.

The board has future plans for additions to the monument.  Currently they’re working on photos to display on the west side of the history panels.  They’re looking for corporate and individual sponsors and they offer a number of sponsorship options, all detailed on their website, http://www.desotorailroadmemorial.org.