Bunkie Depot Museum is a slice of railroad history

By GARLAND FORMAN

 

    For years, the Bunkie Depot on the corner of Main Street and Oak Street sat idle as a reminder of years gone by. The depot was closed in 1968 when passenger train service was discontinued in Bunkie. Private citizens, municipal officials and the Bunkie Chamber of Commerce wanted to re-open the Bunkie Depot as the Chamber of Commerce office and a railroad museum. Funding was obtained and the renovations were made. 

    In 2001, the depot reopened to the delight of Bunkie residents and Union Pacific Railroad officials. The company donated a caboose, now located next to the depot. Since 2001, a Veterans Memorial has been added next to the depot.

    Many activities are planned each year around the depot grounds. There is a digital sign in front of the depot to inform the public of upcoming events and activities.

    The museum is located on the first floor of the depot, as is the Bunkie Chamber of Commerce. Over the years, the depot has been open for tourists for three to five days a week. Currently, the building is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Chamber officials are hoping to have it open Monday-Friday in the near future.

    The museum features several artifacts, including a telegraph and signal lights, of when the railroad was this area’s  main way to travel, ship goods and deliver the mail across the nation. The museum exhibits were donated by people in Bunkie whose relatives had worked at the depot.

   The second floor of the depot is a conference room for meetings, such as the Chamber’s monthly meeting.

   On the north end of the depot is a large room that once held freight to be shipped on the trains. Now, the room is used for storage, mostly items for the Louisiana Corn Festival.

   The Texas and Pacific Railway established a station on the main line at Bunkie in 1882. Bunkie formed around it as a shipping point for cotton and cotton-related industries such as cotton seed oil production. The current depot, built in 1911, was not the original freight depot, but is the only existing reminder of the importance of the railway to the founding of Bunkie.

   The 1911 depot is a two-story brick building alongside the railroad tracks. It has no particular architectural style. The building sits on a heavily stuccoed dado and has a distinctive bay window overlooking the tracks.

   It is one of only three remaining larger multi-story urban train depots in Louisiana, built in the early 20th century. The others are the Central Railroad Station in Shreveport, and the Kansas City Southern Depot in DeQuincy.

   In 1991, the depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places 

   It’s the general consensus of the local people in the area that “the railroad built Bunkie.”

   By the early 1870s, Captain Samuel Haas, a Civil War veteran, was the largest landowner in the Bunkie area of the parish. In 1882, the Texas and Pacific Railway was seeking the right of way across Haas’ land to build the railway. In exchange for permission to build, Capt. Haas was given the privilege of naming the train station.

    The railway served as a significant source of transportation for many businessmen, and the depot was a critical point of travel, primarily south to New Orleans and north to Shreveport. Bunkie served as a central location for passenger service. 

    Legend is that Haas returned from a trip to New Orleans where he had bought his young daughter a toy monkey. In her excitement, she called the toy a “bunkie” instead of a “monkey.”  From then on, he called her his “little Bunkie,” and he named the train station after her.

   The railway was hectic with activity. Bunkie was situated in the heart of some the South’s best farmland. The railway freight office stayed busy shipping local products such as cane, cotton and corn. Passenger service continued to thrive.

   The depot included a telegraph office and continued to be the main center of commerce and transportation for Avoyelles Parish through the 1950s.

   On April 16, 2011, the Bunkie Depot celebrated its 100th birthday. 

   Union Pacific launched its Train Town USA Registry as part of the railroad’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2012. The registry is part of the railroad company’s ongoing efforts to highlight cities that have a historical connection to the railroad. 

    Bunkie was admitted as a member of that registry. Mayor Mike Robertson was presented an official Train Town USA resolution, signed by UP Chairman Jim Young, in a special ceremony.

    “We are proud to recognize Bunkie as we celebrate our growing up together,” Drew Tessier, Union Pacific’s pubic affairs director, said during the ceremony. “Union Pacific was founded to help connect the nation from east to west. Our shared heritage with Bunkie is a source of pride as we remember our past while delivering the goods American businesses and families use every day.”

     A visitor to the depot once wrote that it was a “very nice restored building. Nice grounds, with a Veterans memorial, train caboose and other items on display. Could spend hours here. I did. It is located on a busy highway, but there is plenty of ample parking.”