Nostalgia & History > Obscure locations: Faith, South Dakota

Here is another photo from the collection of the South Dakota Historical Society. I have been studying Milwaukee Road depots in various locations in South Dakota. Faith was the west terminus of a branch line that traversed several Native American reservations. There was a stockyard here and this beautiful Milwaukee Road depot. I don't know if this depot is still standing or not. Obviously, it was not a location of high traffic for the Milwaukee. The information on the photo does not give a date for the photo. 

Jim Burrill
Belle Fourche, SD.

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tolland Wrote:
<<don't know if this depot is still standing or not  >>

Google street view says it is; at the Faith Information Center, a "city government office"... https://goo.gl/maps/pEb6RoL75VubdoXV7   An earth view (satellite) shows a building attached to the back of it.

Dave in MT

Thanks for posting this photo of such an obscure location on the MILW.  As you said, Faith was at the end of a long branch line that featured many bridges and curves, unlike other branchline in the area.  I have never seen photos of a train on this line.  Faith is known as the location of the famous "Sue" Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found nearby.

How was Faith reached?  Difficult to find much information .

Dave

RSD5 Wrote:
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> How was Faith reached?  Difficult to find much
> information .
>
> Dave

The branch left the east-west main just west of Mobridge SD.  You can follow it all the way to Faith (the line to Isabel split at Trail City) using Google satellite maps.

View looked ESE from about 50 ft. W-of grade-crossing on S side of U.S.№ 212/1ST St. E in NE part of town (site platted-by Milwaukee Land Co. in 1910).  Agency closed c.1962, and original slide(?) taken about that time or w/in following decade.  Original depot was an ‟extended style-D” type that arrived-on a truss-rod flat w/first train from Eagle Butte (42½ mi.E/b) in early Jan., 1911 – this (2nd) ‟style C” depot appears to have been constructed c.1914.

Passenger service was originally a Mon-Sat ‟mixed” supplanted w/a #59XX-series Express-coach gas-electric ‟motor” c.1927, when then-CMStP&P’s ‟motors” were converted-to diesel-electrics.  Latter ran-as №’s 405 Tue-Thu-Sat, and 406 Mon-Wed-Fri trailing a rib-sided RPO-Express-coach ‟branchline combine” w/the ‟mixed” №’s 205 Mon-Wed-Fri, and 206 Tue-Thu-Sat.  The ‟motor” last ran in late Jan., 1949. and was the last-such used in scheduled passenger service operated-on ‟Lines West” (of Mobridge).  However, that ‟mixed” service continued w/passengers allowed to ride in the caboose into early 1955, when №’s 17 & 18 coach-only remnants of the ‟Columbian” were cut-back from Marmarth, ND to Aberdeen.

Both grain and livestock (stockyards were ¼ mi.E/b from depot) were shipped-out, w/a considerable amount of wool as-well.  A double warehouse for latter once stood W-of and across the tracks from the depot along S side of highway/1st St. E.  Line abandoned-from Trail City (originally Cheyenne Jct., 106.1 mi.) in late 1978, w/tracks removed starting-in April of following year.  Existing ‟Information Center” structure’s relocated some 300 ft. N across the highway/1st St. E, and rotated about 140° CCW w/30±ft. added to end seen above.

Preceding information from MILW In Dakota by R.W. Mills, Battle Creek Pub.©1998 (has several historic b&w photos of RR, plus color shot of depot from the E in Faith), One Hundred Ghosts by B. Hatfield, Arrowhead Models ©2022 (ref.p.310, although it’s primarily about the 1910-1979 55 mi. Isabel branch from Moreau Jct. to the N), and PNR MILW employee timetable collection (ref. https://research.milwelectric.org/Employee_Timetables/Forms/AllItems.aspx).  Also, an ‟all-time/maximum system” RR map of South Dakota originally published-by that state’s Transportation Dept. as part-of their 1989 statehood Centennial event is available ‟on-line” (ref. http://aberdeenareahistory.org/files/fullsize/bcab530c74ef98e29da5804430ccace0.jpg).