The Carsonville Depot Hiding in the rolling Plains of the Thumb

We are engaged. Smashing across the mild Spring air in Michigan's Thumb, my friend T.J. Gaffney and I were off to see something that was overlooked in time. It popped up in all places Facebook Marketplace for free. 

Not always does something come your way, but this was way cool. For me it was an opportunity at possibly the coolest workshop / mancave that one could ever come across in a lifetime. But was it what we thought it was? Photographs were hard to come by. We had two ideas. But what was it?

On further inspection it was clear. It was possibly the depot in Applegate or Carsonville, but no Applegate depot photos exist of a boxcar there. The station was closed by 1965 when it was dropped off the C&O employee timetable. But Carsonville was still there. Still being used up into the 1970s. In the survey of the railroad in 1979, it was stated to be an old boxcar being used as the depot. 

Photos confirm that from on-line images available, but not all that detailed. Later photos email to me by Charlie Whipp, a well known maritime and railroad photographer from Michigan convinced me it was Carsonville. 

Heavily modified to be an office in one end and a freight room in another, it survived it manufacturing around 1925 to now in relatively in good structural shape. But the door is closing on saving this historic railroad depot of Sanilac County, MI. 

TJ and I wanted to get it to my house for a great "toxic masculinity" project, yet with still undiagnosed / corrected covid vaccine harm and covid illness complications hanging on two years past now, my wife said those terrible words... "no." The recent passing of our dear fellow railroad preservationist, historian, foodie, movie quoter expert, and of course dear friend Chad Thompson weighed heavy on her mind with my health issues and tackling a large project. 

Now that ole depot's destination may be another great home there in Sanilac County. We just helped save another historic railcar there last year, the Pullman Troop Kitchen Car in the Sanilac Historical Museum and Village. 

Nothing is set in stone yet, but our gears are turning. Stay tuned.