The End of the Line on the Sumpter Valley

Prairie City was the western terminus of the Sumpter Valley Ry. just past MP80. Here we see the Prairie City depot with a bit of the daily passenger train visible on the right. The builders of the Railway had ambitious plans to extend the railroad further west and then south to hook up to the NCO, but that never materialized. In 1912, announcements appeared in N.E. Or. newspapers that the railroad was about to extend on to the town of John Day. Sadly, David Eccles the man with money behind the railroad died and his heirs quashed any further expansion. Today, the Prairie City depot is well maintained as the DeWitt Museum and well worth visiting. The scan is from the SVRR Archive.